19 December, 2013

Seventeen social housing complexes earmarked for redevelopment

Christchurch City Council is pressing ahead with plans to prioritise 17 social housing complexes for redevelopment.

At today’s Council meeting, Councillors received an update on the Rebuild and Partnerships Programme*, which focuses on 17 high-priority complexes identified from the Council’s City Housing portfolio.

The complexes comprise 479 units, and partly account for 28 per cent of the units currently closed following the Canterbury earthquakes and subsequent red-zoning of land.

The high-priority complexes were originally identified through a report issued to the Government in 2009, seeking capital to assist in reinvestment. However, the application was unsuccessful.

Housing Committee Chairman Glenn Livingstone says the Council is taking positive steps to identify and address its under-performing social housing.

“As a responsible landlord, the Council is committed to ensuring tenants have access to healthy, safe, fit-for-purpose accommodation.

“The redevelopment of the 17 ‘old and cold’ complexes will help to establish a new benchmark for good-quality, energy-efficient social housing provision in Christchurch.

“Furthermore, the Rebuild and Partnerships Programme will facilitate the creation of more than 300 new housing units over the next four to five years,” he says.

The 17 social housing complexes have been split into four divisions according to their priority, taking into account lifespan, maintenance costs, site utilisation, pending upgrades and earthquake damage, among other criteria.

The three highest priority complexes in division one, Andrews Crescent, Willard Street and Brougham Village, will allow for more than 300 housing units to be developed — a doubling of the combined sites’ existing 151 units.

The Council has already approved issuing a Request for Proposals for Andrews Crescent, and has asked that reports for the redevelopment of the Willard Street and Brougham Village complexes be presented to the Housing Committee in February 2014.

The Council has also requested that feasibility studies for the other division-one complexes, Carey Street, Coles Place and Cresselly Place, be completed by March 2014.

*In July 2013, the Council adopted the Social Housing Expressions of Interest report. A partnering framework has since been developed to facilitate the creation of approximately 400 to 500 new social housing units over the next four to five years. The Council’s Rebuild and Partnerships Programme includes 12 approved City Housing partners: Housing New Zealand, Comcare Trust, Methodist Mission, RIMA, South City Christian Centre, Vision West, Arrow-Morrison, Accessible Properties, Awatea Living, Ceres, Opus-investec, and The Salvation Army.

ENDS

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