Consultation on affordable housing undertaken by the Central Otago District Council was a “box ticking exercise” and people’s views were ignored, according to Central Otago Affordable Housing Trust spokesperson Glen Christiansen.

The council voted yesterday to not support any further investigation into the gifting of publicly-owned land from Gair Avenue and Dunstan Park subdivisions for a ‘Secure Homes’

Programme.  

The trust had principally proposed the scheme in response to the high cost of housing causing a shortage of workers.

“We need to get this show on the road for the whole district,” Glen told councillors during a public form prior to the decision being made.

Councillors felt residents who responded to a consultation survey were not fully aware of the financial consequences of gifting land for such a purpose.

Staff had told councillors that a land gift could add over two per cent increases to people's rate each year, over the course of a 25-year loan. These figures had not been included in the public’s survey information.

Results had shown strong public support for affordable housing but mixed opinion on the local body taking a financial role in providing it. 

At a meeting in March, a paper had been presented to the council that recommended they do not give up land, given the significant financial ramifications it would have. This prompted them to

seek feedback from the community before deciding whether or not to look in more detail at what supporting the trust would mean to ratepayers.

Respondents to that subsequent survey felt that affordable housing helped address inequality by helping those into a home who otherwise may not be able to afford it, encouraging inclusion and

supporting community well-being. 

Respondents said it would be important for affordable homes to be good quality buildings and there was general support of the concept.

Overwhelmingly, however, staff said the most common theme was that it is not council’s role to play a part in affordable housing. Many felt it was a function of central government and council

should not be subsidising housing at the expense of the rate payer. Respondents felt council should focus on core business and invest in infrastructure first. 

Councillor Cheryl Laws said affordable housing was not local government business and she was disappointed the survey seemed to have been rushed. Others agreed with her that the

mixed typology of housing planned for the next stage at council’s own Gair Avenue subdivision in Cromwell would provide good options for purchasers.

Cr Tamah Alley doubted the Secure Homes model would work in Central Otago as well as it had in Queenstown because this area was outside a funding zone where government provided

financial help to people trying to get into a home.

“The Secure Homes model is an exceptional example of something working really well in Queenstown that is not applicable here. We don’t have access to any government contributions like they

did, we don’t have access to any developer contributions like they have and there is no ability to grow the model here beyond us gifting land.”

Mayor Tim Cadogan discussed looking into more detail around the financial ramifications through the council’s next Long-Term Plan and Cr Neil Gillespie indicated he would also accept this

being done. 

Tim said he was hearing that businesses were seriously struggling to get staff which was an affordable housing issue but the question was whether it was council’s job to fix it.

Most of the 480 respondents to the survey were resident in Cromwell and Vincent wards with lots of people who already owned a home supporting affording housing work being done.

How the plan proceeded was now up to the housing trust, Tim said.

After the meeting Glen said he was disappointed by the decision and he believed businesses and those seeking home ownership would suffer the consequences.

“It will affect Alexandra first I believe. They’ve got a supermarket opening at Christmas that will probably need 80 staff, maybe more. They’re either going to steal [staff] locally, or how are they

going to attract them out of the cities?”

He said council had ignored the strong sentiment of public support, as well as reports with input from 25 agencies and evidence gathered on the severity of the worker shortage. The work of the

trust would not be able to continue without council support, he said.

“It is a sad decision really because the community had spoken and I thought it was very clear. People can’t believe it. It’s really made a mockery of the consultation. They needed to take

ownership of it (providing affordable housing) and make a courageous decision for the community.”