The first seven of 21 new Kāinga Ora homes will be housing families by February.

Kāinga Ora showed off four homes built at 43-45 Matene Street at an open home on Sunday, December 3. Two are 2-bedroom houses, two are 3-bedroom.

The new homes will provide much needed housing for families both on the Ministry for Social Development (MSD) waitlist and Kāinga Ora customers. A total of 177 families are on the waiting list for the area. Anyone housed through Kāinga Ora will be on that list.

Kāinga Ora senior stakeholder relationship manager Josh Clark says the priority for Kāinga Ora is to rehouse people who are in Ōtaki, or have a strong connection to the town.

“In some instances we have to temporarily relocate families in order to build new, warmer, drier homes.” Josh says. “They’re excited about moving back here – and in a brand new home.”

The block at 275 Mill Road, on the corner of Dunstan Street, has three houses that are also near completion. They include a 1-bedroom home and two 2-bedrooms.

Other Kāinga Ora developments in Ōtaki scheduled for completion mid-2024 include:

• 5-9 Matene Street – six new homes including three 2-bedrooms and three 3-bedrooms

• 22-26 Kirk Street – five 3-bedrooms and one 4-bedroom

• 12 Tōtara Street – one 2-bedroom and one 3-bedroom.

Kāinga Ora is also looking at how to develop a block at 45-47 Aotaki Street.

All the new homes under construction are being built by Lower Hutt firm EasyBuild, but local labour and contracting for services such as landscaping are sourced locally as much as possible.

They are all built to Healthy Homes standards.

The Matene Street open day demonstrated how far public housing has progressed. The homes are spacious and well equipped, including heat pumps and water tanks that provide grey water.

“People are genuinely excited about making a new start,” Josh says. “We see how proud they are when they show their friends and family around. It gives us a buzz, too.”