Hopes for a home coming to fruition
Mum moves into new home; funding for infrastructure
Ayear-long journey to housing independence has nearly concluded for soonto-be Flaxmere resident Amo Taite. Housing Minister Megan Wood made an announcement of $18.5 million in funding for Three Waters and transport infrastructure in Hastings to support housing, before joining Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst and Taite on a tour of Taite’s newly built home last week.
A scheduled appearance by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at both events was cancelled because of a flight delay due to cloudy and rainy weather in Hawke’s Bay.
Taite said the journey to home ownership as a single mother was not easy, with some time spent in a Housing Corporation home, living with her mother and renting along the way.
“Just to start my journey being in debt and then getting out of that, being a single mum, working hard and keeping to our goals and just never giving up,” Taite said.
She has five children who are young adults now.
“I am going to have two living with me, so they can do what I’ve done, save money and build a house. I want them to be able to build their own too.”
She said she was looking forward to getting pets. “I want to get a dog and a cat. I’d like a French bulldog or a pug, something small.”
The $192m tranche two Infrastructure Acceleration Fund (IAF) is expected to enable about 11,500 homes at multiple housing developments across the country over the next 10 to 15 years.
Woods said a joint application between Hastings District Council and Heretaunga Tamatea Settlement Trust for the $18.5m would support 4000 more homes in Hastings alone, including Ma¯ori housing on several papaka¯inga developments. “This is the infrastructure that will allow homes to be built, this is the pipes under the ground, this is the roads, these are the things that allow us to build houses,” Woods said.
Act leader David Seymour spoke to a packed room in Hastings on Wednesday evening, and the party hit back at the Infrastructure Acceleration Fund announcement.
Act deputy leader and housing spokeswoman Brooke van Velden described the fund as a temporary fix that would not solve the country’s infrastructure problems. “It’s a too little, too late concession and shows that changing zoning doesn’t mean more houses if you don’t fund infrastructure,” she said. Act’s solution is a member’s bill which proposes local councils receive a payment equivalent to 50 per cent of the GST for every new dwelling constructed in their territory.
Hazlehurst said they had been working since 2019 with their Hastings Place Based Plan partners to deliver homes that meet the needs of the community.
“The Government funding that helped support and kick-start this initiative has allowed us to move more quickly than would have previously been possible, and we’ve made huge progress with hundreds of houses either built or in the pipeline,” Hazlehurst said.
Heretaunga Tamatea Settlement Trust chairwoman Liz Graham said the IAF funding represented one of their first opportunities to invest in their people.
“Te tapuwae o Rongokao — tapuwae nui tapuwae roa. Seeding our footprint into the future like that of Rongokako — far reaching and broad.”