Media release
Conference focused on moving needle to end housing crisis
Ending homelessness and ensuring all New Zealanders are well housed are among the topics being put under the spotlight
at the upcoming Community Housing Aotearoa IMPACT conference.
More than 200 people from community and social housing, the development community, government and local government will
be attending the 2017 CHA IMPACT conference, which is being held June 7 to 9 at Te Papa in Wellington.
CHA Director Scott Figenshow says the conference will centre on the way delegates and their organisations can contribute
to achieving the vision of “all New Zealanders being well housed”.
“This is an opportunity to have a collective impact on the housing situation as many of the key players in social and
affordable housing will be coming together to be part of the solution to improve housing outcomes for all New
Zealanders.
“These organisations are committed to finding solutions that identify what is required to significantly move the needle
towards ending the housing crisis we’re experiencing.”
He says one of the outcomes wanted from the conference is agreeing an action plan for Our Place on the growth and
sustainability of affordable housing.
“We’ve invited some key speakers to help us develop this action plan and to learn from their experiences in addressing
homelessness and increasing the supply of affordable housing.
“The current environment presents many opportunities and poses many challenges to community housing providers – not
least the uncertain and changing policy settings.”
Community housing providers are reporting that the issue is getting bigger, with more households unable to transition
from social rental to affordable rental and home ownership, he says.
“Supplying more homes is part of the solution but we are not seeing enough supply of genuinely affordable homes, of
varying sizes that meet household needs today and in the future.
“We need to look at how we create an environment that supports providers to grow sufficiently to meet these challenges
going forward.”
Scott Figenshow says the link between well housed and well-being is well known.
“We want to take the link between well housed and well-being one step further and see how well-being economics can get
us beyond the fiscal economic barriers that limit the current responses to housing.
“Girol Karacaoglu, Victoria University of Wellington; David Rutherford, Human Rights Commissioner and Hurimoana Nui
Dennis, Te Puea Memorial Marae; will help us with this on day one of the conference.
“Community housing providers say New Zealand’s housing issues will not be addressed until the right tools to increase
social and affordable homes are put in place. We’ve seen some positive changes in the last year – now we need to take
the next step.”
Key note speakers include:
United States’ Nan Roman has a deep understanding of international approaches that have proven effective in reducing
homelessness. As well as speaking at the conference, she also plans to use her time in New Zealand to meet with
political, community and philanthropic leaders to support New Zealand’s efforts to end homelessness.
National Affordable Housing Consortium, Mike Myers will present some of the lessons he’s learned working in Australia,
and discuss what this might means for New Zealand and the capacity of the New Zealand community housing sector to
respond to housing demand.
Louise Crabtree, Western Sydney University, will be presenting again at this conference having presented at the
CHA-IMPACT 2015 event. She is an Australasian expert on land trusts.
MSD’s Director of Housing, Scott Gallacher, will be attending to help unpack what New Zealands social and affordable
housing will look like in the future.
Lead sector researcher, Kay Saville Smith of CRESA, will be looking at procurement capacity in the community housing
sector and what that might mean for community housing providers.More information on speakers, media registration and the
programme can be found here.
Scott Figenshow says CHA was grateful to those organisations that had made this conference possible through sponsorship.
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