Sallies to boost housing stock

The Salvation Army isn’t waiting around for the Government to solve Auckland’s housing crisis.

The charity is stepping up its efforts to address the problem by spending millions of dollars to boost the city’s social housing stock.

Its national director of social housing, Greg Foster, said its development plans included building 40 units on land owned by its local corps in Flat Bush, south Auckland.

Foster said the $15 million social housing project was in the pre-approval stage and will include one- and two-bedroom dwellings.

He hoped it would be completed by the end of next year.

‘‘The tenants will get support from the Salvation Army church [in Flat Bush] and other community partners.

‘‘This is long-term social housing. There’s a huge need in south Auckland for social housing.

‘‘We’ll fund this development 100 per cent . . . via an internal or external loan . . .’’

Foster said the Salvation Army was also building 50 units at a site in Royal Oak and more than 20 units in Westgate, west Auckland.

Work has already begun on the units in Royal Oak, which will cost about $28m to build, and are expected to be finished by June next year.

The Westgate units would require funding of about $6m and were in the pre-approval stage, he said.

The Government would provide a $4.2m capital grant to assist with the building of the Royal Oak project, with the rest of the money coming from the Salvation Army, Foster said.

‘‘We’re really committed to doing what we can to address the housing crisis. We’re stretching ourselves financially to do this and we are committed to putting our money with our mouth is.’’

Foster said the Government was ‘‘very supportive’’ of the Salvation Army’s efforts to provide more social housing to people in need.

‘‘I think the Government is well aware of the housing crisis and the need to address it with the resources it has.

‘‘It’s put a lot of resources into emergency housing. The optics of seeing people sleeping in cars is not good. Building new social housing is the logical, long-term solution. It’s a complex problem to solve and something that’s taken 30 years to develop.’’

The Salvation Army currently prioritised people aged 55 and older for its social housing, but was looking at expanding the service so it was available to other age groups, Foster said.

The charity’s typical tenant was someone aged about 70 and who had been renting from the organisation for about a decade.

‘‘We prefer to take people who are on the Ministry of Social Development’s social housing register,’’ he said. ‘‘We’re expecting that with demographic trends, there’s [going to be] a growing need for social housing, especially for people aged 65 and older. If the trend continues over the next five to 10 years there will be almost one million people aged over 65 in New Zealand.’’