Looking after our locals

It takes a lot of skill and relationship building to accomplish a smooth transition for relocating our tenants – but it’s nothing short of what our super humans in the tenancy team can achieve.

Tenancy Liaison Officer for the Roskill Development in Auckland, Kathleen, is just one of our super humans who have helped manage the disruptive, often stressful and emotionally charged process of assisting those who have had to move out of their homes because of our development plans.

The Roskill Development is one of our largest projects, and will deliver more than 10,000 new homes in the community over the next 10 to 15 years. The renovated neighbourhood, amenities and infrastructure, just 15 minutes from the central city, will be the foundation of a thriving suburb for both our tenants and private owners.

Once complete, the development will comprise 3,000 state homes, 3,500 more affordable homes and 3,500 homes for the general market.

Our Roskill Development is bigger than the name suggests, and extends well beyond the boundaries of Mt Roskill to include Ōwairaka, Puketāpapa, Roskill South, Waikōwhai and Wesley. The greater Roskill area was chosen for development as it has good local facilities, transport links and is close to the city centre, airport, and employment hubs in south Auckland.

There is also a substantial amount of old state housing stock in the community that we need to demolish to make way for an even greater number of new warm, dry and modern homes in the same space.

As part of our Roskill Development project, Faalo and her family were relocated into a brand new, warm, dry home in their community.

Part of our work in these developments involves relocating our tenants within the same community, where possible, to minimise the impact of moving on their lives.

Last year, Kathleen moved 88 families in Roskill. When their homes were to be demolished, they were provided with new or better homes to move into.

“Many tenants are sad to leave a home they have lived in for a long time but they understand the reason,” says Kathleen.

“They see the housing need on the news and accept the situation. It would be much harder if we were telling them they had to move away from their community.”

Kathleen has enjoyed receiving feedback from tenants about their new homes, which are much warmer and healthier, and result in fewer trips to the doctor.

Tenants have commented that their sections are more manageable to maintain, and two houses requiring accessibility modifications were provided so the tenants could stay in the community.

Those who use public transport are still close to public transport links and were moved with this in mind.

Kathleen is particularly proud that the children in the community could stay at their schools, despite moving zones, and worked closely with families and the local school principal to make it happen.

Vanya, Mt Roskill Area Manager, says the success of our tenant relocations in the Roskill Development comes down to sound planning and outstanding team work and community engagement.

“This is quite a juggling act but in Roskill South, apart from one family that required a bigger house, all of our tenants have been able to stay in the community, which is a real achievement for Kathleen and the team,” says Vanya.

“Our Development Team and Tenancy Liaison Team worked closely together to achieve this outstanding result, managing the rehousing programme and ensuring the availability of new homes within the community.

“This resulted in a gentler pace of rehousing, making it less stressful for our families and our own teams as well as keeping more people local.”

Our large scale housing developments provide the opportunity to revamp the areas we are working in and bring public spaces and facilities up to date for the community. Greater Roskill’s neighbourhoods already have vibrant, diverse communities and the plan is for new people to move into the area so that it can continue to be a thriving suburb.

Current housing activity for our Roskill Development:

• 170 homes demolished
• 79 state homes completed
• 106 state homes under construction