Plans for Glen Innes

I’m excited that Briar March’s new documentary is coming out soon. She’s a fantastic director – probably best known for There Once Was An Island, which won a heap of prizes – and this time, she’s looking at a topic dear to my heart: the redevelopment of Glen Innes. The documentary is called Whare Tapu Wha. It’s showing on Maori TV at 9.30pm on the 15th September. 

Speaking of Glen Innes, I was grateful to CPAG for making some acute observations on the development of the Glen Innes project in their pre-election report on housing [pdf]. Unfortunately for low-income people, 39 houses that were to be for social housing tenants are no longer. 

To illustrate this, firstly CPAG quotes from HNZ’s Statement of Intent 2013-16: 

The project will see 156 state houses in two areas of northern Glen Innes redeveloped to create at least 260 new houses, including 78 state houses and at least 39 other social housing properties. The remaining new homes built by the project will provide a mix of affordable rentals and affordable home ownership opportunities.

Contrast this with the FAQs currently up on HNZ’s website: 

“To achieve our goals for the area, we plan to redevelop 156 properties to create at least 260 new houses, including: 78 owned by Housing New Zealand, at least 39 other market-based affordable houses and the remainder for private sale.”

While the numbers remain the same, what they count is very different. As CPAG point out:

….the 39 ‘other social housing properties’ have become 39 ‘other market-based affordable houses’, whatever these are, and the remaining additional houses have gone from providing ‘a mix of affordable rentals and affordable homeownership opportunities’ to being for ‘private sale’. Under this most recent scenario 156 state houses are turned into 78 new state houses making it difficult to believe that this first stage of the Tamaki redevelopment is not some form of state sponsored gentrification.

Decreasing the amount of state/community housing makes no sense when there is a desperate need for social housing in Auckland. It’s shocking and sad to learn that the amount of social housing proposed has decreased further.