New social housing units open in Waltham

Christchurch City Council has celebrated the opening of eight new social housing units in Waltham.

The new units were officially opened today at the Council's Osborne Street housing complex, doubling the number of units available there previously.

Carolyn Gallagher, Head of Housing, says the Council is following through on its commitment to build back quality social housing for the city that makes the best use of available land.

"The Council is rebuilding high-quality social housing that's designed to meet the needs of the community over the long term," she says.

"Where units have been severely earthquake damaged, we can rebuild them in ways that make better use of the land, get better value for money and get new units open faster – all of which are excellent outcomes for the city.

"The new units at Osborne Street are warm, energy efficient and designed to cater to tenants’ changing living and access needs over their lifetimes.”

The eight new units replace four severely earthquake-damaged units demolished last year at Osborne Street.

They are part of a number of new Council units being built to help replace those that were red-zoned or deemed uneconomic to repair.

The four one-bedroom and four two-bedroom homes have been accredited by Lifemark, which means they are able to cater for the changing accessibility needs of tenants. They have also been insulated beyond Building Code requirements and feature double glazing, wet-area showers, wider pathways and doorways, and higher wall sockets.

Tenants will begin moving into the new units next month.

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