Queenstown-Wakatipu ward councillor Nikki Gladding told the Otago Daily Times the Grow Well Whaiora’s joint housing action plan, unanimously endorsed by the QLDC, was an attempt "to make something work out of a system that’s fundamentally wrong because of central government settings".
"[Government is] using housing as an investment rather than homing [people]," Cr Gladding said.
The government, via the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga) and Kāinga Ora, is a member of the joint action plan, along with the QLDC and the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust.
"I struggled to approve it [the joint action plan], to be honest ... because to me there were a whole range of things that submitters had raised ... about specific pieces of legislation that we thought needed to be addressed and central government wasn’t even brave enough to allow us to lift those," she said.
"I’m really sceptical. At the moment we’ve got largely our [QLDC] pushing this joint housing action plan through and that costs the ratepayers but central government holds the really strong lever that could shift things really quickly and I feel like they’re ... pi..... around the edges.
"[The QLDC is] tossing up between ‘do you go nice and gently; let’s try and shift things slowly in partnership’ or do you come out raging in support of your community and push them [the government] really hard. We’ve taken the first approach ... It may work or it may not," Cr Gladding said.
Cr Gladding successfully proposed a motion at the meeting for the QLDC to annually review progress and outcomes of the joint action plan.
"If it’s really not shifting things in a major way ... we need to take a whole different approach."
Lack of affordable housing in the resort is forcing some workers to sleep in their cars during the freezing winter.
The joint action plan’s key performance indicators include increased housing numbers, more affordable homes and a decrease in housing being a barrier to recruiting and retaining staff.
Any solutions the joint action plan will come up with will "bear more fruit in the medium to long term", a council media release said.
"QLDC continues to support Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust for more immediate solutions," the media release said.
Community Housing Trust chief executive Julie Scott said demand for its housing services had increased over winter and more than 1000 eligible households were now on the trust’s waiting list.
