The Community Housing Acceleration Taskforce has approved a Housing Reserve Grant of $200,000 to Habitat for Humanity (Nelson) Ltd for the development of four 3-bedroom progressive home ownership dwellings at 135 Tipahi Street, Nelson.

The Community Housing Acceleration Taskforce’s role is to advise on how Council can help grow social and affordable housing using the Housing Reserve fund with the goal to double the number of social and affordable houses from 50 to 100 by 2026.

The Housing Reserve Fund was established on the basis that its purpose would be ‘to work with and support partners who have the ability to deliver social and affordable housing solutions for the community’.

To date, the Housing Reserve has allocated $6 million in co-funding to enable the construction of 45 social and affordable rentals and 16 progressive home ownership houses across Nelson (a total of 61 new homes).

Taskforce Chair Rachel Sanson says there are currently around 1150 families in Nelson facing housing insecurity and in urgent need of affordable housing - 41% higher than two years ago. [1]

“Housing insecurity takes a massive toll on the wellbeing of people in our community. Our taskforce is keenly aware of this and looking at all options to support better housing outcomes. We really value the work of organisations like Habitat for Humanity who are focused on providing affordable and community housing and understand that Council has an important role to play, alongside the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (MHUD) and other philanthropic funders.” 

Habitat for Humanity Nelson is part of an affiliated Habitat network that works across New Zealand as well as internationally, towards a vision of a world where everyone has a decent place to live. They also provide a range of programmes aimed at building strength, stability, and self-reliance through shelter in the Nelson Tasman region.

“We are very appreciative of the grants we have received from the Housing Reserve Fund to support our building projects," says Katrina Bach, GM Habitat for Humanity Nelson.

"The families chosen for these homes on Tipahi Street will have the stability and security of living in a home that they will one day own. Having a stable and secure place to live provides a strong foundation for many of life’s essential building blocks, which positively impacts the whole community. Without the support of the Nelson City Council and Housing Reserve fund we could not achieve this level of investment into housing.”  

Habitat’s Progressive Home Ownership (PHO) Programme helps families to achieve home ownership through a rent to buy model. 

Families occupy a new home built by Habitat and their rent payments go towards building a deposit over the next 5-10 years. 

When they have a sufficient deposit, they can purchase their home from Habitat by taking out a mortgage from a bank and become homeowners. Habitat invests the money from the sale of the property back into the PHO programme to help more people into homeownership.  

[1] Monitoring Local Housing Need Summary for the period 1 July – 31 December2023, Nelson Tasman Housing Trust

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