Mayor planning $5m fund boost for Mission building
Helping hand for complex and $23m ‘savings target’ in Goff’s final budget of first term
Mayor Phil Goff wants to pump an extra $5 million into the Auckland City Mission, to help with the construction costs of its new building on Hobson St.
That building, to be called HomeGround, will contain accommodation, health services and community facilities. Demolition of the old City Mission buildings has already begun.
“There has been a massive growth of homelessness on our streets,” said Goff. “We’ve helped fund the Housing First programme that has put 700 formerly homeless people into a home in the last 18 months, but there is a lot more to do.”
He added, “To my knowledge this is one of the largest single grants to any organisation of that nature in a similar period.”
Auckland City Missioner Chris Farrelly said the Mission was “deeply grateful”.
“Our HomeGround development is an initiative unlike anything else seen before in New Zealand,” he said, adding that the building would be “a purpose-built, safe space to stand against homelessness, hunger and poor health. Offering pragmatic, hands-on services and support to help those who need it most, this $90 million project will be a legacy for Auckland.
“The HomeGround development has been a long-held vision for the Mission and this $5 million funding proposal shows great leadership.”
That $5m is the only new item in Goff’s proposed Auckland Council budget for 2019-20, announced yesterday. The council will debate the budget in the coming months.
Goff has signalled an additional “savings target” of $23m in the budget, which is the last he will be in charge of in his first term as mayor.
The savings are in operating expenditure and will come from “smarter procurement”, including IT investment, and “automation” of some administration services, according to the council’s general manager of financial strategy and planning, Ross Tucker.
Asked if that means job losses, Goff
To my knowledge this is one of the largest single grants to any organisation of that nature in a similar period. Phil Goff, Auckland mayor
said a sinking lid policy was preferred and he was not aware that any specific jobs had been identified.
“The council’s staffing costs have been going down each year over the previous year,” he said.
Goff said that would represent a saving of 4 per cent “by the end of next year”. During the 2016 election campaign, Goff promised to make savings of 3-6 per cent.
He also promised to limit rates increases to an average 2.5 per cent. The budget proposal announced yesterday holds to that promise in relation to general rates.
As Goff noted, though, Aucklanders are also paying a regional fuel tax and targeted rates to improve water services and safeguard the environment.
Goff said he believed 2.5 per cent was “the lowest rate increase of any New Zealand city”.
A spokesperson for the mayor said the average Auckland property is now worth $1.08m and attracts general rates of $2578, or $49.58 per week. The average increase is $1.38 per week.
The targeted rates are set amounts and will not increase.
In June this year the governing body signed off on the council’s 10-year budget.
This 2019-20 budget contains the details of the second year of that 10-year budget. Among those details, Goff said he was “especially pleased about the ongoing improvements to water quality, including the four beaches on the Manukau Harbour that we have reopened for swimming after being unsafe for decades”.
The proposed budget comprises $4.2 billion of operational expenditure and $2.5b of capital expenditure for the year. Goff said that was the council’s “largest ever capital expenditure”.