Photo credit / Peeni Henare Facebook
Ngāti Kahungunu will build up to 131 new homes for whānau after inking a $45.3 million partnership agreement with the government earlier this week.
“This partnership with Ngāti Kahungunu will see up to 131 more affordable rentals and papakāinga being built throughout the Ngāti Kahungunu rohe, getting whānau into dry warm homes more quickly as well as helping some reconnect with their whenua," Māori Housing Minister Peeni Henare said Thursday in a statement.
"This is the third such partnership following soon after Ka Uruora in Taranaki whānui and Toitū Tairāwhiti on the East Coast. This is our Whai Kainga Whai Oranga kaupapa backed by the 730 million investment in Māori housing," Henare added in a Facebook post.
Henare visited Ngāti Kahungunu in April to progress discussions around the iwi's K3 housing initiative. At the time, then board chair Ngahiwi Tomoana said Ngāti Kahungunu's philosophy behind the initiative was concerned with more than simply building homes.
"Ngāti Kahungunu iwi construction company K3 Kahungunu Property, is not just about building homes but also focuses on pioneering customised training programmes to upskill and grow whānau through apprenticeships and supports Māori ownership by creating business opportunities."
Henare wrote on Facebook, "I want to acknowledge the former chairperson of Ngāti Kahungunu, Mr Ngahiwi Tomoana, who worked hard to drive this kaupapa. We are all proud to see this kaupapa come to fruition but know there is so much more work to do. I look forward to coming back to Ngāti Kahungunu in the near future."
New board chair Bayden Barber told RNZ on Saturday that the partnership with government would greatly assist whānau desperately in need of housing in their rohe.
"We have huge amounts of people living in transitional housing or our motels in Hastings and Napier, they're full of whānau that don't have a home to live in, so this will be a great opportunity to have another 131 homes available for whānau in Ngāti Kahungunu to be living in."
To progress the house-building, Barber said the iwi would, for example, be partnering with post-settlement entity groups from Wairoa down to Wairarapa already doing housing up and would also work with Māori landowners, saying that Māori land blocks have been identified through Heretaunga Whanui.
However, whānau will have a few years' wait before the housing will be available for them to make their home.
"Probably in the next couple of years, we should be seeing a whole lot of activity around, the actual physical building of whare, such as setting the foundation, and making sure that we're all over the commandments, the scale scalability, procurement, all of that detail that comes in, and major developments such as this," Barber said in the RNZ report.