At the February council meeting, elected members approved up to $1.2 million in additional funds for the Mangawhai pensioner housing upgrade, to be drawn from depreciation reserves.

The additional funding enables the completion of the project, ensuring warm, dry homes for pensioner tenants that comply with Healthy Homes standards.

For some time now, Council has investigated different options to ensure that the accommodation provided meets the Healthy Homes standards before the deadline.

Last year, elected members agreed that modular, pre-fabricated homes for the Fagan Place site was the preferrable cost and future site effective solution, based on staff reports at the time. A budget of $3.02 million had already been approved and included in Long Term Plans. Staff identified up to $1.2 million more would be needed to complete the housing upgrade after identifying on-site installation items that were required but had not been included in the initial scope.

Kaipara District Council Chief Executive Jason Marris acknowledged that additional items identified at a later stage meant the budget presented to elected members would not have been sufficient to complete the upgrades.

“Unfortunately we underestimated the costs involved for the site works in their initial assessments. From a council perspective elected members are doing the right thing by our pensioners and ensuring we meet our legislative requirements for Healthy Homes standards.”

“There are no additional costs to the ratepayers as the money used will be drawn from depreciation reserves.”

Mr Marris also confirmed that an external review of the full process will be undertaken, as requested by elected members.

Council owns community housing across the district, at Fagan Place Mangawhai, Kauri Court and Awakino Road in Dargaville, and in Ruawai. Dargaville and Ruawai housing was upgraded in the late 2000s. The Mangawhai units, originally constructed in the 1980s have not been upgraded and are in poor condition. As landlords, Council must provide housing that complies with the Healthy Homes standards by mid-year.

Work to upgrade the housing has already begun – preliminary work onsite has kicked off and seven of the modular, pre-fabricated units are nearing completion by Laminata, a Northland based housing provider.

Completion of the project will see the Fagan Place units meet the same standards as the rest of Council’s pensioner housing portfolio – warm, dry, compliant homes.

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