Council’s wet house bid stalled

One of Wellington Mayor Justin Lester’s key election pledges could be a year or more away, and is relying on an incoming government to provide funding.

Lester promised in 2016 to deliver a wet house, or Te Whare Oki Oki, for homeless alcoholics and drug addicts.

Residents at the facility would be allowed alcohol while undergoing rehabilitation programmes in a hostel-like environment that would offer round-theclock supervision.

This week, a Wellington City Council city strategy meeting is expected to put the wet house on its housing priority list. Meeting documents say work on the project is already under way.

However, the documents describe the resources needed as ‘‘moderate’’, and dependent on funding from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) and other government agencies.

A meeting of the Inner City Wellington residents’ association has been told by some city councillors that the home is 12 to 18 months from seeing the light of day.

That meeting was told the council needed to find funding of $800,000 a year, so it was in talks with the ministry about it becoming a partner in the project.

Lester had been expected to make an announcement last month. But he has conceded it would be a minimum of 18 months before anything would happen.

He said the council had been working with community partners to develop a proposal for MSD. He had met with the ministry and Housing New Zealand last week and made good progress on the project, which had strong support.

It is understood MSD is waiting until after the election before confirming any funding.

In the meantime, the council is looking at design options. Its preference was for a facility in the central city, and it was looking at options of refurbishing a building or constructing one from scratch, Lester said.

It had originally planned to provide a 14-bed facility in an existing CBD location, but there was now an opportunity to expand.

The funding would be the decider, but there was an indication that there could be support to do more. This included a 150-bed unit with a range of options across the council’s housing-first initiative.

A fit-out and any building work would take time to organise, he said. ‘‘I actually didn’t think we would be this far down the track. I think we are further along than I envisaged.’’

"I actually didn't think we would be this far down the track. I think we are further along than I envisaged."

Wellington Mayor Justin Lester on the council's proposed Te Whare Oki Oki facility for homeless alcoholics and drug addicts.