Last week I had the pleasure of going to see the redeveloped City Mission which will include wrap around services for our long-term homeless and 85 permanent apartments to house our most vulnerable.
It has a whole floor of beds for those detoxing and a kitchen to provide meals to those who are still living on our streets. Just up the road, the Greys Avenue redevelopment will provide a further 200 state homes, and again essential wrap around services for those who need them.
Many other of the options to help ease chronic homelessness are coming on stream also. The Auckland Night Shelter, being one of many where the commitment of volunteers is making a huge difference.
Homelessness was not a feature of the central city I grew up in but it wasn’t exactly a utopia either.
I remember the violent objections to a half-way house in Arthur Street, where I grew up. I am pleased to see that the community in Ponsonby has now got behind the development of supportive living for women in need just a stone’s throw from that site.
I think lots more people now recognise we need to fix a very broken system and that we are connecting with each other in a way that was out of vogue for a while. A pandemic can be sobering like that.
Recognising the need to design our city so it reinforces and enriches our interconnectedness is not just about protecting the vulnerable, although that is very important. In a growing city this value must be instilled in our community design, our housing and our transport solutions. People want full engagement with their own and other communities and strong opportunities to connect.
The Unit Titles Act reforms which have party support from both sides of the house might sound incredibly dull but strong community living rules are critical for our first home buyers in the city.
Residents should be rest assured buying a house or apartment subject to a body corporate in the city is an easy and painless experience. They also need to know the value of what they are buying and with a plan for how to keep it at that value.
These new laws will make buying much more transparent and will plan maintenance into the future. I believe there is more work to do in this space as unit titles is only one form of community ownership structure. Aucklanders have not really experienced this kind of community living before, so there is lots to learn from overseas. I will be working on connecting our city with these ideals.
Auckland city needs options other than buying a stand-alone home, like long-term leasing which allows people to stay in the community and live in a community without having to sink capital into it.
This is crucial to building long-term community.
I grew up with many children whose families were raised in the city when it was cheap. Many people my parents' age don’t want to leave the area that is their community but they are now cash poor. They are also often rattling around a big, but poorly maintained home. That can be isolating, but having to leave a long-time community is pretty serious for the mental wellbeing of older people.
While reverse mortgages are one option for some to be able to stay put, I would like to see more choices and I see long term rentals as a really sensible way to go.
There are many who just can’t get a deposit together to even think about buying a house because of day to day costs. Being in a vibrant city, close to work is great for families and single people, and frankly having them in Auckland Central would be fantastic for our city centre.
So many businesses in Auckland have moved their workers home and as a consequence many of the hospitality and retail businesses are struggling. I would love to see those businesses return strongly. To have people living, working and playing in our inner city would surely help. I don’t want to see them have to move out because of rising costs and being locked out of housing. Rent-to-buy makes a lot of sense for this group, as do secure rental options.
This article is funded by the Parliamentary Service. (Helen White)
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