A $100 million investment into housing provision has been announced as part of the "urgent" initiative
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Over 1,000 new housing places have been announced by the government with more expected to become available soon, according to Housing and Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford.
Twyford, along with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, have announced an urgent initiative to tackle homelessness this winter, and have invested $100 million into 1,500 new housing places compared to the end of last year. The winter 2018 response has been described as an “all hands on deck” approach, and the government is currently focused on working with communities to make even more housing available.
“Reaching this milestone means at least 1,000 households will have a warm, dry and safe place to live instead of worrying whether they’ll even have a roof over their heads,” Twyford stated.
“The wider housing sector, including community housing providers, transitional housing providers, our Housing First providers and Housing New Zealand, has worked tirelessly with the Ministry of Social Development to provide as many housing places as possible.”
So far, the government has brought on approximately 600 public housing tenancies, 440 transitional housing places for households looking to move into long-term accommodation, and three households have been placed in permanent housing through Housing First.
It has also received over 270 contacts about potential housing opportunities through members of the public, private landlords, NGOs, iwi and developers.
“The Government’s incredibly grateful to the public, who responded in droves to the Prime Minister’s call to action,” Twyford said. “These contacts have so far resulted in 122 more housing places being made available, with nearly 73 more expected to be ready shortly.
“While 1,500 more places was the goal that was set originally for this winter, the Government said from the start that we will always do more if we can, and we stand by that commitment.”
