Housing Minister, Megan Woods, has today opened 21 new public homes in Masterton, marking the return of new Government-owned public housing to the area for the first time in two decades.
Minister Woods said the Masterton homes and two new homes in Dannevirke represent the first step in a commitment to deliver a larger pipeline of housing projects in the region, with at least 80 new homes in the construction, planning or feasibility stages.
“This is an important milestone for the Wairarapa and the people and families in need of public housing,” she said.
The new Masterton homes consist of 18 Kāinga Ora homes in Iorns Street and three homes in Michael St.
The Minister also confirmed that Kāinga Ora is working with a developer to build 11 homes in Featherston, in addition to another development for four homes in Greytown.
“We have delivered an additional 13,305 public homes since October 2017, which is a phenomenal result and means this Government has delivered one in seven of the country’s total public housing stock,” she said.
“Most of these additional homes are brand new. This demonstrates the difference between Labour and the National Party’s approach to public housing; they sell them off and we build them.
“We are on track to deliver 21,000 public and transitional homes by 2025. This extraordinary pace of delivery from both Kāinga Ora and community housing providers, is evident in communities across New Zealand. Old, cold housing is being replaced with warm, dry homes.
“In just six years we have rebuilt the public housing stock after National left New Zealand with 1,500 fewer public homes than it started with, and failed to invest in new ones.
“We are now finalising the latest update of the Public Housing Plan which will determine where the extra 3,000 public homes we announced at Budget 2023, will go.
“We know regions such as the Bay of Plenty, East Coast, Waikato and West Coast/ Tasman have a large need for more public homes, and they will be prioritised in the Plan that will be finalised in September,” the Minister said.
