I was confronted at the Nelson Market last Saturday by a homeless man who was frustrated at the growing number of people in Nelson living in cars and tents.
He was particularly concerned that the 10 former council flats in Examiner St, bought by Kāinga Ora (Housing NZ), have been empty for nearly a year, a criticism I agree with. I am also hearing from retailers and cafes, concerned for the safety of their staff and customers from people living rough in the central city.
Nelson’s housing problem is continuing to get worse. The official number of people on the Housing Register for Nelson Tasman has gone up 152% in five years, from 168 to 423.
The just-released survey by the Nelson Tasman Housing Trust shows a 70% increase since 2018 in the number of people in need of affordable housing, rising to 696. Rents have gone up over the past five years in Nelson by $125 a week. The hikes in interest rates have pushed up the cost of servicing an average mortgage by $250 per week.
The Government’s record is mixed. It is good that they have some new Kāinga Ora housing developments under way locally. However, these fall short of the 1000 KiwiBuild affordable homes promised for Nelson and Tasman out of 100,000 nationwide. This was the flagship policy of the Government in 2017 but not one KiwiBuild home has been built in the region.
Council is doing all it can to help. We are using our Housing Reserve Fund to double the number of affordable community homes. Our last Council meeting extended the role of our Community Housing Acceleration Taskforce to explore where we can further help with the most vulnerable. The difficult debate on Council’s Plan Change 29 is also about making it easier to grow housing supply with the obvious constraints on available land.
The community, through the Housing Trust, Habitat for Humanity, Housing First and the Homeless Hub are doing great work, but they need more support.
There are no magic answers but Council is keen to do its part in helping overcome this complex and difficult problem.
