Anthony Tahere, who’s expected to be one of the first tenants at Te Kohekohe, checks out the view from one of the first-floor units.
Photo: RNZ/ Peter de Graaf

Having a secure roof over his head will be “life-changing” for a Kaikohe man who is likely to become a tenant in a new social housing development.

The first 10 units of Te Kohekohe in Kaikohe were formally opened before dawn this morning, with another 50 homes to come by June next year.

The development is co-built and co-owned by iwi health provider Te Hau Ora O Ngāpuhi and council-owned company Far North Holdings, making it the first council-iwi partnership of its kind in New Zealand.

Called Te Kohekohe, the homes are being built on an old RSA car park at the top of Broadway in Kaikohe.

With high rents and a dire shortage of housing in the town, Anthony Tahere has spent the past eight months living in a converted motel.

Before that he was in emergency housing.

With the motel potentially switching back to tourist accommodation, the opening of Te Kohekohe could not be better timed for Tahere.

Now he was not just looking forward to having a stable home for the first time in years, he had also landed a job providing security for the new housing complex.

“It will change my life heaps. Just to know I’ve got a secure place for the next 10, 15 years-plus. It’d be amazing to see happen.”

Tahere said it was tough finding a place to live anywhere in the North, and rents were out of reach for many.

Te Hau Ora O Ngāpuhi chief executive Tia Ashby and kaumātua Fred Sadler at the opening of the new apartments.
Photo: RNZ/ Peter de Graaf

Te Hau Ora O Ngāpuhi chief executive Tia Ashby said today’s opening of stage one of the development was the realisation of a long-held dream.

The original impetus came from a survey several years ago that found the town’s number one health need was housing.

Many respondents said it didn’t matter what health services were available, as long as they were living in cold, damp, overcrowded homes.

“It was really heart-breaking. We had a huge demand for housing and no supply,” Ashby said.

“Often we’d have to navigate people to other services, which meant they’d have to leave Kaikohe for wherever rentals were available, often in Whangārei or Auckland.

“Some of them were living in vehicles or they were having to squish into homes where there were 10-plus whānau living in a two or three-bedroom unit.

“Now we’ve got the opportunity to offer them a warm, safe place to stay, and something that can be for the long term, instead of motel units or overcrowded circumstances.”

Ashby said the mix of one, two and three-bedroom homes in the development was based on the needs of people on the iwi’s social housing register.

They included many kuia and kaumātua who needed support, young mothers with babies, and couples who could not find a place they could afford.

“We had 336 on our waiting list, so this is just the tip of the iceberg, but we are making progress,” she said.

Te Hau Ora O Ngāpuhi plans to apply for resource consent in December to build 100 owner-occupied homes on nearby Bisset Rd.

Far North Holdings chief executive Andy Nock watches as the first homes at Te Kohekohe are blessed.
Photo: RNZ/ Peter de Graaf

Far North Holdings chief executive Andy Nock said the partnership with Te Hau Ora O Ngāpuhi was a first for New Zealand.

“It has allowed us to provide more homes than otherwise would have been possible with a single owner,” Nock said.

The two organisations have a 25-year social housing agreement with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.

Far North Holdings had supplied the property development expertise, while Te Hau Ora O Ngāpuhi would manage the residents and provide wrap-around social services.

Nock said he hoped to replicate the partnership with other iwi organisations in the Far North.

“Every single home makes a difference, but what we’re doing is still a drop in the ocean compared to the needs of this district. It has a chronic housing shortage. This is 60 homes, but we need a lot, lot more.”

The project was being built in three stages to allow people to move in as soon as possible, Nock said.

Ngāpuhi scholar Hone Sadler about to bless Kaikohe’s new community housing complex, Te Kohekohe.
Photo: RNZ/ Peter de Graaf

Peeni Henare, who was Associate Housing Minister when the government agreed to back the project, said he felt emotional to see it come to fruition, despite challenges such as the covid pandemic.

“That’s testament to lots of hard work by lots of people. The next step is getting whānau in here and getting them help,” he said.

Today’s pre-dawn ceremony included a blessing of each of the ten units and an official naming. Te Kohekohe, which stems from the tree that gave Kaikohe its name, is the name given to the full complex while Kākano, or seed, is the name of stage one.