“Our lives have changed” Hastings customers thrive with community and connection

With family nearby, friendly neighbours and the kids now settled into school, Paula and Fia have established a strong sense of community – and created a new extended family.

A year after moving into their new homes, both families are thriving.

While the two families have developed a supportive relationship over the past year, Paula, Fia and their families first formed a bond while they were both experiencing the uncertainty and challenges of living in emergency housing. By coincidence they moved into the same housing development on the same day last year.

For Paula, knowing that her new light, bright, modern home is somewhere she can put down roots with her young family has made all the difference.

“Our life has changed. I don’t need to worry about where we will be next week or where we will be next month. I finally feel secure,” Paula says.

“The children are happy and getting involved in sports at school. They are really enjoying having friends over and having their own rooms to decorate. I had always dreamt of growing my own vegetables and now we are eating the lettuce that I planted.”

Paula and her family

And it’s not just the warm, dry home that has helped make this a life-changing move for Paula and her children – it’s the neighbours around them and the great relationships they’ve developed within the community.

“It is a friendly place to live with the neighbours all saying hello and being respectful to each other. I feel really safe here,” Paula says.

“An added bonus is having Fia and her family just across the lane. After meeting at the Omahu accommodation complex a couple of years ago, it was reassuring to see the familiar faces of Fia and her family when we first moved in. Now the kids move freely between the two homes playing and sharing meals – it’s just great.”

Fia agrees. “This feels like a community – a family. Paula’s older girl Rylynn is a big help. She loves coming over to help with my baby and play with my little girls.”

“Recently we have been harvesting asparagus. When we have some spare or get other free things from the community, we share it with Paula’s family and our other neighbours. They do the same with us.”

For Fia, her husband Fred and their large family, their last emergency accommodation saw them living in a campground. “With the girls in one cabin and the boys in another,” says Fia.

“Our biggest blessing in our new home is that we now get to have family time together. In the evenings we gather around for prayers, play music and spend time with each other. We couldn’t do that at the campground. We just used it for sleeping.”

“My kids are now more relaxed, and they don’t miss school anymore. The older ones have their own room, and the bigger space means the kids have room to play.”

The development Paula and Fia call home was built as part of wider work in Hastings to deliver more homes through a place-based approach. In 2019, Hastings became a pilot for the place-based housing initiatives that provide suitable housing solutions for individual communities. Kāinga Ora is one of the partners, working alongside iwi, Council, local organisations and build partners to find housing solutions for Hastings whānau.

Read more: New homes change lives of two large Hastings families - December 2022