Community Housing Providers hope for home ownership support

The Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, Housing Foundation and Community Housing Aotearoa are renewing their call for Government support for the affordable home ownership initiative KiwiBuy ahead of the 2019 Budget announcement.

“The ideas in KiwiBuy are tested and proven” says Scott Figenshow, CEO of Community Housing Aotearoa, an organisation which represents more than 100 housing organisations. “Community Housing Providers are ready to help more Kiwis into homes of their own, but they can’t do it unless they have Government support.”

The Community Housing Providers calling for KiwiBuy argue that these programmes make home ownership possible for people locked out of the housing market. “KiwiBuy must be part of the Wellbeing Budget announcements if they are serious about solving the housing crisis” says Figenshow.

“For many families the opportunity for home ownership remains out of reach” says Claire Szab, Habitat for Humanity NZ CEO. “We see this budget as a chance for the government to do something about that.”

“Home ownership can be the inoculation against intergenerational poverty” says Szab.
KiwiBuy programmes like Progressive Home Ownership and Shared Ownership have been successfully used by organisations like Habitat for Humanity and the Housing Foundation to assist families who are locked out of the housing market to own their own home.

“Housing Foundation and Habitat alone have assisted hundreds of Kiwi families into home ownership, and we want to assist many more of the 120,000 plus households trapped renting who with this assistance can become homeowners” says Dominic Foote, Housing Foundation GM of Operations. “We hope this budget will provide that opportunity to these families - and we know many other iwi and community providers across Aotearoa are ready to as well.”

These Community Housing Providers, as well as the groundswell who have come out in support of KiwiBuy are hopeful this year's Budget will introduce financing and processes which will assist families into homes through Progressive Home Ownership and Shared Ownership.

© Scoop Media