I want you to imagine a world where all of our children have somewhere warm, dry and safe to call home.

Where new homes are built to a standard that keeps us all healthy, and existing ones have either been retrofitted or redeveloped.

Renting for life is a dignified option, but private landlords are the exception rather than the rule.

Communities are empowered to support each other, and our elders are able to live rich and active lives, close to their families and friends.

Where our towns and cities are designed to adapt to our changing climate and foster human connection.

And where aspirations of mana whenua to provide for their people are enabled at all levels of government.

No single action can achieve all of these things, but we won’t even get close without building more public housing.

As of the end of June, 351 people in Dunedin were on the government’s Social Housing Register — 336 of those are considered Priority 1.

The city’s second biggest landlord, the Dunedin City Council, currently has a waiting list of 240 —  of which 108 are Priority 2. This is the top priority for people without particular accessibility needs, of which there are none.

This is more likely due to the lack of accessible council flats, meaning people don’t bother applying, than it is a reflection of community need.

It is not as simple as adding those two lists together, because some people will be on both lists, and others will be on neither.

Either way, that’s hundreds of people in our community who have been failed by both the private rental market, which is too expensive, and by public housing provision, which is too scarce.

Unfortunately, Kāinga Ora does not have any appetite to improve this. It has been abandoning projects all over the country, including the consented development in Dunedin in Carroll St, and the redevelopment of land on Albertson Ave in Port Chalmers.

At the same time, the Dunedin City Council has ended its own new-build programme. The threat of government intervention, should you choose to spend money on things that our current government doesn’t value, is very real.

So if central government won’t, and local government can’t, what can we do to address the urgent need for more affordable rentals in Dunedin?

We need to think more creatively, and empower the community sector to play a more active role, if we’re to do anything other than surrender.

We know that there is appetite for this at the community end. We have been having informal discussions with Community Housing Providers (CHPs), developers, architects, construction firms and potential investors. They are up for the challenge.

One very tangible thing that the DCC and government could do is make undeveloped, residentially zoned land available for the construction of more public housing.

Offering long term, low cost ground leases, for example, would significantly improve the feasibility of these developments, and allow for a wider range of community-led solutions to address community need.

The government can’t be let off the hook entirely, though. It still needs to come to the party and offer enduring financial support to whoever ends up running them.

This allows private developers and CHPs to plan with greater certainty, forming partnerships the likes of which we’ve seen with the Salvation Army-run housing units in Steamer Basin.

In the longer term, we need decision-makers to rebuild the capacity that has been stripped out of Kāinga Ora, simply for their ability to build at a scale we can never hope to match regionally.

But we can’t wait for that. We need to take charge of our own destiny.

Because, whatever happens on November 7, nobody in Wellington is coming to save us.

  • Aaron Hawkins is the strategic lead for Housing Alliance Otago.