Selloff mooted to tackle rent crisis
Elena McPhee asks whether selling council-owned pensioner flats could open up Marlborough’s rental market.
Selling off council-owned pensioner flats could help meet an urgent demand for affordable rental accommodation in Marlborough. The region owns 179 pensioner units in its housing portfolio, and their suitability is being reviewed as some are described as ‘‘bedsits’’.
Marlborough District councillor Mark Peters, who sits on the housing for seniors subcommittee, suggested a portion of the houses could be sold and newer houses built for the elderly.
With rents and house prices rising, housing advocates have become increasingly concerned at the number of people unable to find accommodation in Marlborough.
Housing New Zealand’s social housing register for the December quarter showed there were 72 applicants on the region’s waitlist.
‘‘We should be able to expand the amount of housing availability … we need a few more for the low-cost housing area,’’ Peters said.
No decisions would be made until the review, currently under way, came out in March.
District councillor Gerald Hope, who also sat on the subcommittee, said some of the council’s pensioner flats were designed in the 1960s and 1970s, and were ‘‘like bedsits’’.
‘‘The housing stock is wellmaintained, but old. A review of the housing portfolio is timely,’’ he said.
‘‘My personal view is that there are better design options now available, for new builds on some of our prime pieces of council-owned land.’’
The oldest council houses in Marlborough were in Picton, with at least one Picton house built in the 1950s.
One hundred and forty-four units were located in Blenheim, 17 in Renwick and 18 in Picton. In order to live in the units tenants had to meet a financial hardship criteria.
Housing for seniors subcommittee chairwoman Cynthia Brooks said Peters’ idea had not yet been discussed, but the committee was ‘‘open to everything’’.
‘‘He’s been giving this situation some thought and that’s good,’’ she said.
‘‘My main focus is to provide good quality housing for our senior population in the best locations we can.’’
Brooks said while the existing pensioner units were ‘‘largely lovely’’, some were situated in inappropriate areas.
Redeveloping the Andrews Pl units in Blenheim was something she wanted to look at. Four or five of them were empty as they could not be lived in.
Brooks stressed that the subcommittee was not looking to reduce the number of pensioner flats, so if some were sold, they would be replaced.
This financial year, $544,000 was budgeted for repairs and maintenance to the units. In 2015, rent varied between about $100 and $140 per week for the pensioner units.
District councillor Jenny Andrews said between 30 and 40 people were normally on the waiting list for the units at any one time, but some people were on there for years because they declined houses offered to them for various reasons.
Andrews said the idea of selling houses for low-cost accommodation was not new, and was discussed several years ago but councillors could not reach an agreement.
In June last year a flatting-forseniors building in Blenheim based on the Abbeyfield New Zealand social housing model was also proposed by Grey Power.
The building would house up to 14 people in studio accommodation, with meals provided, and would cost about $2 million to build.
Grey Power president Brian McNamara said the Abbeyfield house proposal was due to be discussed further at a Grey Power committee meeting this week.