One Voice Te Reo Kotahi Sector forum
17 July 2013 - YMCA, 10 Hereford St,
Christchurch
How can housing developments in Greater Christchurch be future-proofed?Kia whakakotahi te hoe (Let's paddle in unison)
Attendance:
Around 50 people attended.
Welcome:
Tangata Whenua Co-Chair Dora Langsbury welcomed everyone, introduced the
OVTRK team and blessed the meeting.
A number of NGOs were invited to give
short presentations on aspects of housing and residential developments.
Comcare
Comcare is a provider of social
housing in Christchurch for people with mental health issues. For them a future-proofed city is one where
people who are vulnerable can be housed.
There are 450 people at any one time
who are homeless and experience mental health and addiction issues. Often they are on invalid or sickness benefits. Comcare supports clients to maintain their
tenancies, which used to be mainly in private sector rentals. They are now mainly in Housing NZ or Chch
City Council properties. There are over
100 people on Comcare’s waiting list.
A positive development in the area of
social housing was the stimulus that has come from the report of the Housing
Shareholders Advisory Group established by government. The report, ‘Home and Housed: A Vision for
Social Housing in New Zealand’ has led to a reform process that has freed up
opportunities and resources for NGOs to contribute more to social housing
provision. As a result Comcare is
currently building 32 flats and hoping to build another 32 in new year.
The Social Housing Reform Bill going
through Parliament now has some positives and negatives. One positive is that the government subsidy that
is given to Housing New Zealand to be able to provide low-rental housing will also
be made available to NGOs providing social housing.
WikiHouse:
WikiHouse is a system that creates
buildings that can be deconstructed and reconstructed. It is trying to achieve affordable, high-performance
buildings for everyone, especially residential housing. The NZ initiative is being developed by Space
Craft Systems and is part of a global network of people working on this
issue. Warm, dry, and sustainable is the
goal.
Principles:
·
adaptable
design: build only what you need, when you need it, and change it when you
want.
·
empowering
people: enables communities to better
help themselves and each other,
·
protective
environment: safeguards people, their interests and the environment.
The concept involves neighbourhoods
designed and delivered by those who live in them. There is a global library of designs that can
be downloaded and then cheaply ‘printed’ and assembled without formal
construction skills or tools. They can
be assembled by non-skilled people under supervision of project leader.
WikiHouse NZ is looking for more
people to become involved, along with funding and partners who can help.
The
Viva project
The vision of Viva is
“to create a vibrant urban village, an innovative and inspiring example of
sustainable design and connected community”.
With the involvement of architecture
and design practice Jasmax, Viva held an integrated design workshop with over
100 people, who designed the kind of village they would like to see in Christchurch. The design was entered the ‘Breathe’ Urban
Village competition and was selected as one of four finalists. The winning design will be built on the
corner of Madras and Gloucester St.
Their plan provides medium density housing
but still maintains quite a lot of open space, allowing for food growing and an
orchard. The focus is on wellbeing and happiness. It’s important that the central city can’t be
just for the rich and overseas visitors.
NZ
Planning Institute
The NZ Planning Institute gave an overview
of Housing Accords Bill, which came out of the 2012 report of the Productivity Commission’s
inquiry into housing affordability. The
inquiry identified the lack of housing supply as an influence on housing
affordability.
The purpose of the Accords Bill is to
stimulate supply. Under the Bill, the
Government is able to identify regions and districts with significant housing
supply and affordability issues and designate them as Special Housing
Areas. A Housing Accord is then
developed between the relevant council and government to work collaboratively
to address housing supply and affordability issues.
While the intention is that councils
and the Government will work in good faith, if an agreement cannot be reached
the Bill gives the Government the ability to establish Special Housing Areas
and to issue consents for developments in areas of severe housing
unaffordability..
Within the Special Housing Areas,
resource consent and plan change processes will be made more permissive. Developments must be predominantly
residential, and will be subject to height restrictions and a maximum number of
houses. However these can be overridden
by Order in Council. The legislation
will be time-limited to 2017.
The Social Services Select Committee is
due to report back on the Bill at the end of July.
Tenants
Protection Assn
TPA recently undertook a survey of
tenants, which confirmed what they have been saying for a long time, that
people are suffering in the rental arena.
Of the 365 respondents, 70% have had one
or more rent increases since the quakes.
The average increase is $43 per week.
Many tenants reported that rentals met only the most basic needs and
nearly 50% reported mould issues.
The report puts forward
a number of recommendations:
·
The
implementation of a rent stabilisation programme. TPA would like to see a public disscussion
around this. It works in many countries
around the world and they are working on a model to take to government.
·
Abolish
letting fees. These are charged by
property manager or other letting agent and are the equivalent of one week’s
rent + GST. Tenants can’t get this from
W&I. As the property manager has
agreement with the owner rather than the tenant, they shouldn’t be able to
charge this to the tenant.
·
An
end to 90 day notices. This would
provide tenants with security of tenure.
Currently landlords can give 90 days’ notice without reason. TPA recommends that all terminations must
have a valid reason. A strong theme that
came through from tenants in survey was that they don’t complain about anything
because they fear being given 90 days’ notice and there is nowhere for them to
go to. Property managers are re-renting
properties more often than they used to over the same period of time. They get another letting fee, but there is no
security of tenure for tenants. The average
tenancy is 10 mths – 2 years.
·
Warrant
of Fitness for all rental properties: The Government has announced that they will
introduce this for Housing NZ properties.
TPA recommends that it also be brought into private sector, where most
tenants live.
TPA is looking for support on these
initiatives. Homelessness is on the
rise, particularly in Christchurch. We need
to future-proof the future of our citizens, and we must say that what people
are living in is unacceptable.
TPA also encouraged people to look at
the Housing Accords Bill very carefully.
Lifemark:
Lifemark advocates
design standards to improve the state of NZ housing, providing design solutions
for our ageing population. They promote
a set of common sense design standards based on 5 key principles:
accessibility, adaptability, usability, safety, and lifetime value.
The speaker from Lifemark was unable
to attend. Tangata Tiriti Co-Chair Katherine
Peet passed on some information that she had received prior to the meeting
about the availability of a new Lifelong Design Advisory Service. This is now free for people in Canterbury
where their home is to be rebuilt or significantly repaired due to the
earthquakes. An advisor can meet with
homeowners and recommend how homes can be adapted for lifespan use.
From
the Ground Up
A group of people looked at what it
costs for standard suburban development (infill) and development of a whole
area to a similar density to that of infill by consolidation of use and
removing cars. Homes can be built more
cheaply with this latter course of action.
Norway has very high building standards, and can build a home for parent
and child for $67,000. This can only be
done with economies of scale and cooperation.
Cooperative
Sections:
This project is trying to make land
affordable. When buying a home in a standard
property development, 1/3 of the cost is the land, 1/3 of the cost is materials
and building, 1/3 is the developer’s margin.
The initiative has found some land and developed community sections that
are selling for up to $140,000. Few
people have inquired, and and this may be because people are risk averse. We need to start taking more risks, that’s why
developers make their profits - they take the risks that we’re not prepared
to.
Land
Use Renewal Plan update
In response to a question how urban
villages can be connected with each other and the central city when there are
two separate plans – LURP and Central City, Stephen Timms from ECan was invited
to give the meeting an update on the progress of the LURP.
The new version of the plan is more
about people and about how it integrates with the central city plan. It sets targets for intensification to 2028,
aiming initially for 35% of all development within the existing urban area and
includes some mechanisms for doing this.
The Plan is open for further comment
until 2 August, and the Minister is keen to implement it as quickly as
possible. It is available from libraries
or on the CERA website.
Questions and comments from the
attendees:
- As the key
issue is resource availability (we are running out of cheap oil) and other
world issues such as collapsing economy; how do we move from this plan to
future-proof our city? Risk
analysis in the plan seems to be absent.
Stephen responded that the issues have been addressed to the extent
that we could.
- Missing
from the plan is realistic thinking about people. Prior to the quakes we were losing
living spaces to urban development and gentrification. Poor people are being forced out to the
greenfields, where they are further from employment and community
resources. Central city living will
be the domain of the well-to-do. Stephen
replied that the planners have been taking this into consideration, trying
to plan so that people can remain in the city.
- Housing
needs to be configured not just for nuclear families but for extended
families – this is particularly important for CALD communities. The urban village concept is useful,
needs to be maximum 20 houses.
- LURP has
proposals for affordable housing on p32.
General
discussion / items from the floor:
- There is concern
at the reported price that government is paying for commercial land – twice
the current GV. This is
discouraging innovation.
- In the LURP
is reference to the Canterbury Sustainable Homes Working Party. Set up by Ecan, this is now being shared
with MBIE and Beacon pathways. It
could be a vehicle for people to influence what gets to council. The working party is developing Build
Back Smarter guidelines with the involvement of Lifemark.
- PHA and
Healthy Chch are planning a housing forum for later in the year.
Closure:
In closing, people were encouraged to stay in touch with each other and
engage with the vision and keep weaving the web.
