CORT now calls itself CORT Community Housing, and although it has grown and expanded its influence Auckland-wide, the original focus to house the elderly, young solo mothers, and the underprivileged, has continued.
I met with CEO Peter Jeffries, who this year received the Australasian Award for Excellence in Social Housing in New Zealand.
Jeffries’s role with CORT has grown from manager, to chairperson and later CEO. He has been innovative, resilient, adaptable, and a keen champion for vulnerable people.
The Ponsonby Baptist Church has put up a display around the church walls featuring milestones of CORT’s journey over the 30 years. It comprises short snapshots of the trust’s history It displayed as large posters inside the church.
The 30 Years photographic display will be available for viewing at the Baptist Church, 43 Jervois Road from Saturday 4 November to Sunday 12 November, weekdays 12noon-2pm and weekends 10am to 2pm.
CORT has grown from the one house in Herne Bay to providing homes for more than 300 people on very low incomes.
Its vision is clear: to be a voice for vulnerable people and to produce affordable housing for people who have to rent in a city with the most unaffordable housing in the world. Its work still rests on the founding belief that “the simple act of providing people with the dignity of adequate accommodation can produce profound changes.”
CORT frames its rental charges around 25-30% of income, and receives an agreed top up from the Government as a subsidy.
Jeffries says that the city has failed to recognise what growth, gentrification and inequality produces. CORT is trying to fulfil an increasing need, partly because the last government abdicated its responsibility for the old, the young, the sick and the underprivileged.
That contract with our most needy was established by the first Labour Government in 1935, and remained sacrosanct until Roger Douglas followed by Ruth Richardson began dismantling it in 1985.
The governance of CORT is provided by the Baptist Church, and Minister, Jody Kilpatrick told me that she and her congregation are proud of CORT and its history.
CORT has come a long way since that first purchase in 1987, and has 100 units under construction right now. Jeffries assured me they are being careful not to try to expand too quickly, but said their assets now total $66 million.
They cannot hope to take up all the slack left as the crown sells off state houses, and seeks to remove itself from the traditional welfare assistance New Zealand became world famous for in the 1930s, but they are taking whatever slice they can handle.
CORT has become part of a giant consortium of NGOs ready to grasp the opportunity. The project is unusual: a large area in a deprived region south of Auckland which the consortium will develop into
a range of affordable options: from rent-to-buy or shared equity schemes to subsidised rental properties - as well as houses for sale on the open market.
From 2013, CORT has been fighting for housing intensification in the city. The network champions the ideal of low-level intensification, blending two to three-storey housing into suburban streets. They have faced opposition from homeowners who are determined to preserve Auckland’s suburban past. Many would call this NIMBYism. The new unitary plan is more accommodating of intensification.
In a time of rampant individualism, selfishness and excessive affluence for the 1% at the top, combined with an increasingly difficult task for the 1% at the bottom to make ends meet, CORT has taken up the challenge of support for as many of the vulnerable as possible.
CORT Community Housing is a shining light right on our back door, fighting to give people a roof over their head, changing the lives of many who were falling through the cracks of our neoliberal and often uncaring society, giving them back their dignity and their sense of self worth.
Ponsonby News is proud of the Ponsonby Baptist Church initiative and their continuing input. We are also pleased to congratulate Peter Jeffries for his long-term involvement and leadership.
(JOHN ELLIOTT)