Kāinga Ora is reviewing 11 projects in Whanganui. Photo / NZME
Eleven Whanganui social housing projects - amounting to more than 100 homes - are in limbo as Kāinga Ora reassesses their viability after a Government-ordered review of the Crown agency.
The report released in May report found that operating deficits at Kāinga Ora were forecast to grow from $520 million in 2022/23 to more than $700m in 2026/27.
Of the more than 300 projects being reassessed nationwide, 11 are in Whanganui. Those 11 projects include 138 houses.
Kāinga Ora regional director Graeme Broderick said two of the 11 projects - 32 Delhi Ave and 101-103 Puriri St - already had resource consent and the other projects were in planning stages.
As of last month Kāinga Ora owned 597 homes in Whanganui.
Whanganui MP Carl Bates said the reassessment was not a criticism of community housing but a criticism of Kāinga Ora’s budget blowouts.
“The cost of building houses with Kāinga Ora went through the roof. You’ve got to step back and go; ‘why is this happening?’,” he said.
Bates said alternatives to Kāinga Ora housing included charities and private landlords.
“We are not worried about who provides the housing,” he said.
Last month there were 270 people on Whanganui’s community housing register waiting list - down from 341 in October.
“They’ve either been put into community housing, they’ve found appropriately supported private rentals, or they no longer qualify,” Bates said.
But Labour’s spokesperson for housing, Kieran McAnulty, believed that was because community housing was harder to get into.
“They are crowing about how there are fewer people in community housing but at the same time they have made it harder to get into.
“Where are those people going to go? They’re going to go onto the street.”
McAnulty was critical of the decision to halt the Kāinga Ora projects for now.
“It is clear there is a need in Whanganui for more houses,” McAnulty said.
He said prioritising housing would help solve other issues the government was focusing on, including crime rates and education.
“Poverty and homelessness are a massive driver of mental health, drug addiction and crime, and if we want to address that, and we want to relieve pressure on our health system, we should house people. That is exactly what we were doing, and that is exactly what the government is not doing,” he said.
But Bates said; ”The reality is they didn’t do it and they didn’t get the results”.
He said the review “doesn’t mean that they have been cut”, instead it was to assess if they were “value for tax-payers money”.
Olivia Reid is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.