New homes a token effort’, says advocate
Kāinga Ora has announced 15 new homes will be built in Invercargill, but a social housing advocate says they were not enough.
The government agency was in the process of building a mix of one, two, three and four-bedroom homes as part of four new developments in Appleby, Glengarry and Strathern.
Social housing advocate Dave Kennedy said households in need of a single-bedroom house dominated the public housing register lists, but there did not seem to be enough houses built for them.
Data from the Ministry of Social Development showed as of December 2023, 123 applicants on the housing register required a single bedroom house, 75 a two-bedroom house, 33 a two-bedroom house and 3 a four-bedroom house in Invercargill.
Of the 15 new homes in Invercargill, only three will be single-bedroom houses.
The remaining will be seven two-bedroom houses and five four-bedroom houses.
“You thought they would build single flats,” Kennedy said.
The 65-year-old said town houses and apartment blocks would better reflect what Invercargill needed, as well as being more cost-effective solutions.
Kennedy, who unsuccessfully ran for the Green Party in the last national election in the Southland electorate, said the new developments were a “token effort” to deal with a massive problem.
“It’s great that they are building them but they are not even building houses to keep up with the increase in the numbers,” he said.
Data from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development showed there were 396 public homes in Invercargill, as of January 2024. This was an increase of 25 more homes since June 2022
According to the data, as of January 2024, there were 239 applicants on the housing register who were eligible for social housing. In 2022, the number was 184.
Data from the Ministry of Social Development showed in 2018 there were 78 applicants on the housing register, which meant in the past six years, there was an increase of over 300% in the households that filed a request for social housing and were deemed eligible for it.
In a statement, Kāinga Ora said five four-bedroom homes were being built in Strathern and were expected to be completed by June, four two-bedroom homes and three one-bedroom homes were under construction in Glengarry and were expected to be completed by the end of the year, and the consent applications for three two-bedroom homes in Appleby were being assessed with no estimated date of completion.
Otago, Southland and South Canterbury regional director Kerrie Young said the agency was “exploring opportunities to redevelop a number of other properties across Invercargill”. “Renewing our housing stock allows us to provide more new homes that are better designed and well-suited to modern lifestyles,” she said.
Young said Kāinga Ora has also developed an interactive tool to keep track of the latest housing developments.
Tomorrow, the local Kāinga Ora engagement team will be in Invercargill at the South Alive community centre where people were welcomed to ask questions about the new projects.