Community Housing Aotearoa welcomes Minister for Housing and Urban Development Phil Twyford’s call to sit down with the community housing sector and agree a multi-year plan for how we can work together to grow the sector in a way that is both ambitious and sustainable.
“We welcome today’s speech by Minister Twyford. We commend him for his vision and commitment to a true partnership with the community housing sector” says Scott Figenshow, Chief Executive of Community Housing Aotearoa, the peak body for New Zealand’s community housing sector. “Our 110 members will be very heartened to hear the Minister’s commitment to negotiate a multi-year plan that is both ambitious and sustainable.”
We are supportive of a collaborative environment and welcome a shift from the quasi- market situation that has pitted provider against provider and has held back the delivery of genuinely affordable housing across the housing continuum.
The community housing sector’s strong and stable track record in delivering over 13,000 quality homes and the right services is a base of success we are chomping at the bit to build upon.
“We look forward to deepening our joint work with Te Matapihi, our sister peak body for the Māori housing sector, to ensure that this new spirit of collaboration will help us truly see all New Zealanders well-housed,” says Mr Figenshow.
Community housing providers are ready to substantially grow in scale, building on our history of partnering to deliver the full range of emergency, social and affordable housing solutions. These solutions will see homelessness become rare, brief and non-recurring. They will also enable first home buyers to move into a permanent home they can afford in a community they love.
The Minister’s commitment to improving rental housing as demonstrated in the Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill and the review to modernise the Residential Tenancies Act and strengthen security of tenure are welcome news to renters.
A true partnership will see our sector working with Housing New Zealand and other government agencies in a genuine collaboration. The sector’s leadership in endorsing the ‘Our Place’ plan, plus the further commitments of 17 organisations from the recent ‘Getting Ready Project’ initiative mean we have many components ready to go.
“We look forward to sitting down with Minister Twyford, sector leaders, and colleagues at MBIE and MSD to put a multi-year plan in place as soon as possble. We’re building on the human rights-based approach, which will help us achieve the Minister’s vision,” said Mr Figenshow.
