Media release
Community Housing Conference focuses on solutions to the housing crisis
It’s time for housing reforms to kick into gear, and the community housing sector is ready and waiting to deliver,
Community Housing Aotearoa says.
Director Scott Figenshow says it is estimated the social and affordable housing sector needs to provide approximately
15,000 safe, warm, quality homes across New Zealand, above the 5000 currently operated by the sector. Achieving this
will require a level of investment on the order of $530m per year for each of the next five years.
“To get these homes built, we need all of the puzzle pieces to work together. That means government commitment, it means
private and charitable input, and it means it all rolling out in tandem, not in a piecemeal fashion.
“We can’t afford to set any solution aside as all of them are essential to make a proper housing market work,” he says.
Director Scott Figenshow says ‘Solutions with IMPACT’ will be the focus of the Community Housing Aotearoa conference in
Nelson this week, starting tomorrow (Wednesday, July 2).
“Community housing is all about creating housing from the perspective of what makes great communities, and works well
for the families who live there.
“We’re talking about building communities with a mixture of incomes, and a range of both rental and owner-occupied
properties. These would be built through a range of methods including by Community Housing Organisations, private sector
developers, landlords and mum and dad owners,” he says.
Scott Figenshow says research has shown that the kind of mixed housing CHA is talking about improves people’s health and
community social outcomes.
“We also know we can provide two to three times the value for the taxpayer than the government would when delivering the
housing themselves.”
He says we need to use several tools together such as special housing areas where land is cheaper due to increased
density.
“Matching new land supply with community housing organisations that also receive philanthropic investment and private
capital means that the mixed tenure, mixed income community might need less from the government to build the same
house.”
He says in the next few years New Zealand has an opportunity to encourage people in the community to deliver good
outcomes for people in their community and do it cost-effectively.
Scott Figenshow says the sector is ready to go to reach the target and the Government needs to be ready to do its part
with the scale of investment and stable policies that will allow that to happen.
[ends]
The Impact Conference www.cha-impact.co.nz