Homes for our people – update

Almost four years on since Hastings District Council joined with central government, iwi, social services providers and the community to address Hastings’ chronic housing shortage, steady progress continues to be made.

The Hastings Place Based Housing Plan pilot was launched in 2019 in an effort to turn around the numbers of families living in emergency accommodation.

This has been supported by Hastings District Council’s medium to long-term housing strategy, which seeks to lay out a plan to provide for up to 7000 new houses over the next 10 years.

Affordable homes on council land in Flaxmere

Up to 150 homes are planned to be built on three lots of council-owned land in Flaxmere where infrastructure groundworks are completed at 244 Flaxmere Ave, and well advanced at 72 Caernarvon Drive and 30 Swansea Rd.

These add to the already completed Tarbet St development where 17 new homes and 18 social/transitional homes either have been or are in the process of being built.

244 Flaxmere Ave

On July 1,the community and whānau joined Hastings District Council to celebrate the completion of groundworks for the new housing subdivision at 244 Flaxmere Ave, including the new road Whakaruru Crescent. The council-owned site will be the location for around 45 new safe, warm, affordable, quality homes to be built by council’s development partners. The road is named after long-time Flaxmere advocate Steve Whakaruru who played a big part in the development of Te Aranga Marae.

72 Caernarvon Drive

At 72 Caernarvon Drive, we are 65 per cent of the way through the physical works to ready the site for homes to be built. The civil work has been accelerated by six months, so that we can provide a minimum of 77 homes, which will be built by our development partners.

30 Swansea Rd

At this site the residential lots are almost complete, with the contractor finished on site in August 2023. After that there will be some finishing touches, before handing one of the lots over to our Development Partners to build around 24 homes. On a smaller lot Council is working with central government to strike a funding arrangement, which will see council’s senior housing offerings to the community increased -maybe by up to 21 additional senior homes.

Waingākau housing development project

Since work on this Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga-owned project began in 2019, 21 homes have been built, and another 37 are either in design or under construction.  Waingākau continue to build Haukāinga Hauora (Healthy Homes) for whānau Māori, especially first-home buyers on the 9.3ha site in West Flaxmere, which now includes affordable rentals.

The Waingākau vision is to create a nurturing community, where everybody knows their neighbours.  This is creating a safe place to raise healthy tamariki, as Waingākau expands into Stages 6 and 7 around Te Aranga Marae.

Public and community housing

Across Hastings, pockets of Kāinga Ora and community provider housing have been built with funding support from Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.

Across Hastings, Kāinga Ora have continued to increase the number and quality of public and supported homes available in Hastings. Since 2019, 295 new warm modern homes have been completed and 121 homes are either in procurement, contracted or in construction.

In addition, the feasibility of a further 124 homes are being considered.

A number of community housing projects have been built with funding support from Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. Construction is currently underway for 12 homes in Caernarvon Drive, Flaxmere, in a partnership between Wesley Community Action and the Hastings Samoan parish. These homes are anticipated to be ready for Pasifika aiga to move into by early 2024.

Papakāinga

With the support of Te Puni Kokiri, 79 papakāinga have been built or are under construction on whenua Māori or ancestral general title whenua across Heretaunga. These are a mix of home ownership and/or collectively owned kāinga. Attached pic is showing the two papakāinga developments at Waipatu (Aorangi Papakāinga).

Forty homes across Heretaunga have had critical house assessments and critical repairs completed.  This contributes towards governments goal that whānau have improved quality of housing for Māori and that whānau live in safe, secure and healthy homes.

Public/private partnerships

Ministry of Housing and Urban Development havs been working in partnership with private developers across Hastings on projects to provide a total of 78 transitional and public homes. In 2022, 15 homes were completed at Plunket St and 18 in Tarbet St.

More projects are underway due to be completed in 2024.

Inner city living

Making better use of existing suburbs and buildings so as to minimise housing growth on our growing soils is a key consideration when addressing the housing shortage.

Council is encouraging the conversion of upper stories in the central city into apartments and in-fill housing, and has also produced a residential intensification design guide to assist in meeting district plan requirements and producing well designed, quality outcomes.

Leading the way to showcase what can be achieved with inner city living, there are plans to redevelop the council-owned buildings at 206 Queen Street and 223 Heretaunga Street West.

Last month, an independent hearing commissioner granted resource consent to demolish the building and redevelop the site that was once home to the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Co-operative Association, and more recently Briscoes.

In its place, there are plans for quality apartment inner city living, extra carparks, a pedestrian laneway connecting to Heretaunga St, and a pocket park, with additional space for two commercial tenancies.

The residential component comprises 6 two-bedroom apartments and 14 one-bedroom apartments, each having a front and back external balcony and internal access from the ground floor entry lobby to the private car parks and the park side.

Market housing

Private developments on newly created subdivisions are making progress, projected to bring more than 1000 houses to the market over coming years.

LYNDHURSTSTAGE 2  

At Lyndhurst, 245 houses have been built, 72 more lots have been consented and 30 are yet to be applied for.

BROOKVALE RD

Consent has been granted to build 102 homes of an estimated 500 planned for this area.

HOWARD ST

Work to service a subdivision on Howard St with roading and drinking, storm and waste water is well underway, expected to wrap up early 2024. Consents have been granted for a 35-unit lifestyle village and an initial nine lots for stage 1 of a larger development.

WILLIAMS STREET/NORTHWOOD

This area is mostly subdivided, with development progressing slowly on the last 20 remaining sections

IONA

Planning process was underway for first stage of development of about 400 homes. A resource consent was recently approved for Stage 1 of the overall subdivision, expected to yield about 400 homes. The consent consists of 118 new single-unit residential lots plus a further nine lots identified for comprehensive residential development (allowing for a higher density on those lots).

31 July 2023

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