Hastings place-based approach a year on

Alongside the place-based partners, we shared progress made with the initiatives over the past year.

In this update,(external link) Hastings District Council outlined more about the place-based approach:

"Hawke’s Bay has some of the highest levels of housing need in New Zealand in terms of population size, and within that Hastings has a range of complex and inter-related housing issues putting pressure on whānau and communities.To address this Hastings District Council began to engage with the Crown, Iwi, and government agencies midway through last year to tackle this challenge and came up with the Hastings Place Based Plan housing solution."

"Officially launched by the Government in December 2019, the holistic programme includes not only building new affordable houses and papakāinga, but also conducting repairs on existing Māori-owned homes to make them healthier and more liveable, making a huge difference to those who live in them."

More state homes, with more on the way

As part of the place-based approach, around the end of 2021, Kāinga Ora are aiming to have delivered an extra 160 warm, dry quality homes in Hastings. These homes range from one-bedroom, single-storey units to six-bedroom, two-storey units to meet the range of different housing needs in the area.

More homes delivered, with more on the way.

Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities business development director Darren Toy was pleased with the progress being made to deliver more public housing, despite the pace of the programme being affected by the Covid-19 lockdown, which resulted in there being no building activity for nearly two months earlier this year.

“Alongside our build partners, we worked hard to deliver 24 homes in Hastings this year with another 23 new homes on track to be delivered by the end of the year, meaning more families in warm, dry and healthy homes this Christmas.

And our programme continues to ramp up with around another 80 homes currently under construction or contract.”

Darren is positive about the benefits of the place-based approach achieving better outcomes for the community, and the whānau who will live in these homes.

“We recently started work on our 40 home development at Mahora, which has been designed in collaboration with Hastings District Council. This way of working will lead the way for our future developments, and is an example of the benefit of the place-based approach in action.”

Darren outlined these high-quality new homes will align with the look and feel of the neighbourhood, and the layout and urban design features will encourage good connectivity and a sense of community with shared indoor and outdoor spaces.

Find more information on the progress being made with the Hastings Place-Based Approach on the Hastings District Council website(external link).

The place based partners celebrate the start of work at the collaboratively designed Mahora development.