Pensioner housing has $5.5m price tag
"I don't regard it as a good deal at all." Michael Feyen
The controversial sale of councilowned pensioner housing in Horowhenua includes measures to protect tenants, but not enough to satisfy opponents of the move.
Grey Power Horowhenua is worried the 115 pensioner units in Levin, Foxton and Shannon could soon be offered to other social housing users, instead of just pensioners, when ownership changes hands.
The sale has attracted widespread opposition because much of the wheeling and dealing has taken place behind closed council doors, although the Horowhenua District Council says it consulted rigorously.
Information leaked to the Manawatu Standard reveals the council is selling the pensioner units to a new company called Compassion Horowhenua for $5.5 million – a price some sources have labelled a bargain.
The sale will be settled by September 30.
Compassion Horowhenua is made up of Wellington-based Catholic charity Sisters of Compassion, with input from property highfliers Mark and David Mcguinness of Willis Bond and Co.
According to the agreement between Compassion Horowhenua and the council, the new owners will provide ‘‘security of tenure for all tenants for the duration of their need’’ and an ‘‘integrated wraparound service for the target population’’. It says rent must be charged at an ‘‘affordable level’’ that takes into account tenants’ incomes and social needs, while giving the new company enough income to ‘‘deliver a level of service consistent with that currently being delivered by [the council]’’.
The agreement also includes a clause that should ease fears of a fire sale. ‘‘The owner is committed to the delivery of social and affordable housing in the district and agrees to ensure that at least 105 units will remain as social or affordable housing until March 16, 2029 (subject to demand).’’
Compassion Horowhenua must ‘‘use all reasonable endeavours to retain all existing tenants during the transition of the properties’’.
Mark Mcguinness is overseas, while David Mcguinness and Sisters of Compassion manager Gerard Mcgreevy directed the Standard to the council for comment. It would not answer questions about the agreement.
A statement from the council last month confirmed it had selected a ‘‘preferred stock transfer partner’’.
Horowhenua Grey Power vicepresident Lew Rohloff criticised the sale and called for the move to be re-considered as part of the district’s 10-year plan.
He raised concerns about a community housing provider buying the units, as that may mean they’re no longer only for pensioners or older residents with disabilities, vastly changing the character of what are ‘‘compact clusters of housing’’.
‘‘You could perhaps refer to them as public retirement villages. The arrival of someone that could be from another part of the spectrum of homelessness or needy will cause the homogeneity of these clusters of housing to be fragmented,’’ Rohloff said.
Mayor Michael Feyen is against the sale and the decision to hold council discussions in private, but said, because of that, he was unable to comment on the agreement with Compassion Horowhenua.
However, he said: ‘‘I don’t regard it as a good deal at all. We could have done far, far better.’’
The sale was ‘‘an absolutely unwise decision’’, he said.
Age Concern Horowhenua chairwoman Diane Brown said the organisation would keep a watching brief on the issue, about which there was little definitive information from official sources.
‘‘The council and their new providers need to say clearly what’s going to happen in the future.’’