Fox out of the House into building homes
Ousted Ma¯ori Party co-leader Marama Fox is turning her sights to tackling homelessness and housing affordability issues.
Fox, whose party did not return to Parliament after receiving a disastrous 1.1 per cent of the vote and no electorate seats, is working with a company to build environmentally friendly, sustainable homes.
The prefab-style, flat-pack houses would be manufactured at a new factory in New Zealand, based on a Canadian model of housing.
The houses would be built on Ma¯ori land, with the first lot of homes going up in Flaxmere, Hawke’s Bay.
Using economies of scale, and working with iwi and social housing providers, Fox’s company would build houses all Kiwis, especially Ma¯ori who are overrepresented in homelessness statistics, could afford.
Census data from 2013, showed 41,000 or 1 in 100 Kiwis were homeless. About a third, or 15,000 were Ma¯ori. Ma¯ori are also twice as likely as Pa¯keha¯ to live with friends or family, according to Otago University research.
The building cost of homes range between $2000 and $4000 a square metre, depending on the type of home. Fox said these eco-friendly houses would come in at about $1000 a square metre.
As the land was already communally owned, the land cost was stripped out of the equation, working instead with a papakainga model.
This is a form of housing development which occurs on multiplyowned Ma¯ori or ancestral land. Traditionally, the literal meaning of papakainga housing is, ‘‘a nurturing place to return to’’.
‘‘We don’t own the land but we live together on the land,’’ Fox said. ’’We don’t have to own our own square space.’’
Those living on the land would care for, and develop the land.
The first build would include 3000 homes, with an ultimate goal of constructing 60,000 homes.
The houses would be built to a higher standard, which would mean warmer, drier homes, that were environmentally friendly and didn’t ruin the land they sat on.
Fox said the project would also generate jobs, with people working in the prefab factory, in interior design and decorating, and in the agriculture space.
It was too soon to reveal the name of the company, or when the first build would occur, but the first contracts were being negotiated at the moment. More was expected to be revealed about the end of the month.
Fox said the project was a silver lining to her party’s devastating election defeat.
Rather than complain about issues plaguing Ma¯ ori people, she planned to get about to fixing the problem.
‘‘I’m really excited. I was absolutely devastated, along with the rest of the party and half of the nation.’’ and horticulture