Council may need to help fund social housing

The Dunedin City Council will have to consider reaching into its own pocket to help alleviate a growing social and community housing shortage in the city, councillors say.

An interim report from the Mayor's Taskforce for Housing, published last week, found the city needed 650 more social and community units just to meet current demand.

Aaron Hawkins
Aaron Hawkins

However, the council would have to act even more swiftly to tackle the issue, it was suggested at yesterday's full council meeting.

Council senior community adviser Paul Coffey said growth projections, which dated from 2013, were probably "a long way behind'' reality, given the recent upsurge in growth.

A staff report to yesterday's meeting said the city had, in 2012, expected to need 1000 new one and two-bedroom social housing units by 2031, but none had been built until this year.

At the same time, significant infrastructure projects planned in Dunedin were expected to increase demand for worker accommodation in the city.

Even so, the figures underscored "how urgent'' the issue was in Dunedin as housing became less affordable, Cr Aaron Hawkins said.

Cr Hawkins - the chairman of the Mayor's Taskforce for Housing - said the shortfall was "certainly a surprise to me, and I think came as a shock to many people''.

It underscored the importance of initiatives such as income-related rents or greater provision of affordable housing within property developments, he said.

Those issues would be traversed when the taskforce presented its final report, which would include a Dunedin Housing Action Plan, he said.

However, the council would need to consider contributing resourcing for initiatives developed with the action plan, beginning at next year's 2019-20 annual plan, he believed.

Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull agreed, but said the Government also needed to remove roadblocks to housing development.

The Government this week announced it was bringing together KiwiBuild and Housing New Zealand to form a new Housing and Urban Development Authority, with wide-ranging powers to override existing council designations and speed up development.

Mr Cull said the Government should allow councils to play by the same rules, or risk creating a "two-tier system''.

Cr Andrew Whiley said the interim report was "a start'', but he hoped the council was doing enough to free up land and cut red tape to encourage property developers.

It could also consider using a $10 million to $15 million slice of the council's Waipori Fund as "seed funding'' for community housing - an idea Cr Hawkins said was not necessary.

Councillors, except Cr Lee Vandervis, voted to note the interim report and adopt the taskforce's initial recommendations.

chris.morris@odt.co.nz

 

Comments

“The Dunedin City Council will have to consider reaching into its own pocket”
Sorry! Whose pocket???

Haha! When I first read it I thought the councillors them selves might have to did into their own pockets!

Just goes to show Hawkins - the chairman of the Mayor's Taskforce for Housing - said the shortfall was "certainly a surprise to me, maybe if Hawkins and other council members looked at the real issues instead of buying old rundown buildings like Sammies, Stopped the build of cycle ways pleaded with the government to move the coin from one pot to another. And the Council stopped other pie in the sky ideas until those in the city were looked after. But is it councils job to get back into housing? didn't they not sell them years ago Lets hope Hawkins does come up with a 'lets house people in Sammies' or buy another old building and house people there ideas

Ratepayers money is regularly spent without scrutiny, due to some mythical "economic return to the city", (potential return to the private sector, not the council), yet when the council can help those in need, rather than help top up already full pockets, the scrutiny is harsh.
Yes to council spending on good quality, well maintained, social housing!

 

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