Smith was talking on Tuesday with NewsTalkZB's Mike Hosking.

Locked out

Smith told Hosking that community housing providers had previously been prevented from buying houses from developers. Instead, Kainga Ora sought out the developers and purchased their houses for the Government.

Smith said that, time and time again, first home owners were locked out of the market because Kainga Ora came along with a big chequebook.

He says Kainga Ora were servants of the Government.

Pointing the finger at the former Housing Minister, Smith said she needs to take blame [for] 80 percent of what has occurred.

Smith told Hosking that he thought the new Government is onto a good thing

A review of Kainga Ora by Sir Bill English found that, rather than collaborating with the community housing sector, the previous Government wanted to work alone.

Smith thinks that was part of the issue.

Elaborating, he said it was also because community housing providers live and work in their communities and know their communities while the Government does not.

Easy choice

"Offering affordable housing to Kiwis is vital if the country is to progress" says Mike Fox, director of Lower Hutt company EasyBuild.

Speaking with CathNews, Fox said he is looking forward to having community housing providers such as Monte Cecilia build good quality community housing for people in need.

"Offering affordable housing to Kiwis is vital for the progression of our country" he said.

Fox has been in the affordable housing business for many years and has witnessed the approaches of successive governments to community housing.

He agrees with Bernie Smith's critique about keeping its housing solutions 'in-house'.

Fox told CathNews that the approach "was to the detriment of New Zealand's social housing stock and stifled innovation in this space.

"Community Housing Providers are the ones on the ground, working effectively and efficiently with residents and understanding what works in their own communities" says Fox.

Positive change coming

Smith thinks the state housing sector can be managed differently.

Acknowledging that the queue for state housing is chronic, Smith suggested bigger is not always better.

"You've got to move away from a model where housing managers have got too many properties to manage" he said.

This isn't the case with community housing providers where the managers actually get to know their tenants, he added.

"They are therefore switched on to where there might be a problem, because they know the tenants rather than the other way around, where they're only getting visited when there are issues."

Seeing change coming, Smith told Hosking he predicts "seeds of positivity" will likely show within the next 12 months.

Sources

• NewstalkZB
• Supplied EasyBuild

The review - which former Prime Minister Sir Bill English led - found the state housing agency has not been responsibly managing the billions of dollars it is allocated.

It's a very strong critique of Kainga Ora, says Monte Cecelia chief executive Vicki Sykes.

She's concerned that though the Government has had the report since March, its response is light on detail - leaving many unanswered questions.

The report questions Kainga Ora's financial competence and highlights a $700 million annual deficit.

Why housing's in a mess

"We don't have cross-party support for housing and we don't have long-term generational planning for housing," Sykes says.

"We get a flip-flop every time there is a change in government and it's really not helpful, especially when there are significant pauses in policy and spending."

Right now, Kainga Ora is working on a plan which must be completed by the end of the year.

Meanwhile Sykes says waiting for it is having a "significant effect" on community housing and commercial property development sectors.

Providers can't plan easily and it limits what they can do without funding security, she says.

"We can provide housing - physical infrastructure and tenancy management - at least as efficiently or more than the government" she points out.

But without cross-party commitment to 20-30 year contract funds in order to make multimillion-dollar projects financially viable, it's difficult for the sector to commit to them.

Transitional housing on skids

Transitional housing is a critical part of the housing ecosystem, Sykes says.

It's part of the service Monte Cecilia offers.

Effective wrap-around services so tenants can move to stable long-term housing are essential.

Yet the Kainga Ora report indicates a question mark over the continuation of wrap-around services.

Sykes says Monte Cecilia, like many housing providers, is ready to build, develop or manage more property and take on more tenants.

"But without funding support for building and operational subsidies [or clear messaging from the Government] our hands are tied...

"The Government postponed their decision on that till perhaps 12 to 18 months."

A lot of traction will be lost, people with skills will go elsewhere, contracts for other work will be undertaken. Local and job-specific knowledge will disappear, she predicts.

Mixed messages

Mixed messages between Kainga Ora and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development didn't help Kainga Ora, Sykes thinks.

They had differing views on 'fiscal responsibility' and 'a reasonable return on investment' - and whether or not Kainga Ora should break even.

"If our society wants everyone housed adequately - which costs money and investment - we need to realise this sort of enterprise can't break even," Sykes says.

Post-war Government big spending projects - including housing - offer another model. They stimulated the economy and provided full employment - plus housing, she suggests.

The Government needs to choose between breaking even and fiscal responsibility - how they reconcile those remains to be seen, Sykes says.

Source

• Pacific Media Network

It says it will start accepting applications for the Fund from community housing providers this week.

The Fund will provide grants of up to 50 percent of the costs for affordable rental property developments.

Some housing providers are positive. They say after waiting six years for funding to build new homes, the scheme is a good start.

Others aren't so upbeat.

South Auckland's Monte Cecilia Housing Trust has some concerns.

Chief executive Bernie Smith says many providers in the Auckland region will struggle to take advantage of the scheme.

"I think in Auckland if you are a community housing provider and you're sitting on land it's great," Smith says.

"But if you don't already have the property and plans to go, I don't know how you could make it work."

Smith notes there are already supply-side shortages in the construction sector. There's a lack of available tradespeople. Materials are in short supply. These shortages could impact on the timing of projects, he says.

Others reporting on construction costs say they're rising at the fastest pace on record.

At the same time, Smith points out property prices in the region add to the cost of developments.

Smith says he plans to meet with officials from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to discuss his concerns.

Monte Cecilia may have to use the Fund in the future to fund housing if it can make it "stack up".

A cut to funding last year allowed social housing providers to lease existing private sector properties. That left providers like Monte Cecilia struggling to provide homes for families who need transitional housing.

Minister for Housing Megan Woods has responded to criticism of those funding cuts, pointing to the emphasis on building new homes rather than always buying or leasing accommodation.

Reports say Kainga Ora has been working on ways to speed up the process of building new homes.

"Project Velocity" has cut the time it takes to get shovels into the ground down from 18 months (on one project) to two months.

Speed is of the essence. Cities - like Rotorua - anticipate needing emergency housing for at least another five years.

Community Housing Aotearoa chief executive Vic Crockford says the Fund is a good start for building affordable rental properties.

"Many households are finding it extremely difficult to pay rent and the impact of that is a swelling transitional housing waitlist and too many of our children in temporary accommodation, unable to put down roots," she says.

Crockford says many providers in the Fund's target regions are ready and waiting with projects in the pipeline.

Source

• The Spinoff
• RNZ