Waitakere commits to Older Adults Housing long term

Waitakere City Council today formally resolved to ensure that a housing service for older adults will continue in the city.

The resolution was made by the Council’s City Development Committee which unanimously supported an approach to Government to seek a partnership in providing the housing.

The Committee called for reports in February on how best to restructure the service and deliver it long term.

“By today’s decision, the Council has made an absolute commitment to ensuring that the Housing for Older Adults Service will continue,” says Councillor Penny Hulse, chair of the committee.

“Hopefully, this will stop the issue being misused as a political football,” she says.

During the discussion, Councillors were critical of local MPs for making misleading comments that had undone the confidence the Council had built up in tenants during the year. They also criticised the Government’s rules for providing funding support for this kind of housing.

“We went to a lot of trouble to reassure tenants that their homes would be safe and that was shattered by very unhelpful comments by certain MPs. It has happened more than once but hopefully, now it will stop,” Councillor Hulse says.

“Nevertheless, we take seriously recent commitments by the Minister of Housing, the Hon Chris Carter, to assist us with funding,” she says.

“We are meeting Minister Carter soon and will tell him we want to go forward on this in partnership. As part of that we will be asking for realistic financial assistance – not the woefully inadequate $1.5 million that is currently the Government’s top limit,” says Councillor Hulse.

Councillor Hulse says that the Council is reviewing every aspect of the housing to see how it can be best delivered over the long term.

“We have to stop patching and painting over cracks and put the whole service on a much better footing. Government money will greatly increase what we can afford to do,” she says.

“We will now receive reports on how best to move forward. When we have considered those, we will create a plan and enshrine it in the Long Term Council Community Plan,” says Councillor Hulse.

“That will be the time when we will be able to tell the Government exactly what is proposed and how they can help,” says Councillor Hulse.

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