October 17, 2012
High rise slums on Glen Innes horizon
A social justice advocate says the replacement state houses being built in Glen Innes will quickly turn into medium rise slums.
Mana Party vice president John Minto has been supporting protests by residents against the removal of 156 houses from the strongly-Maori suburb.
Mana leader Hone Harawira was arrested in a night time protest there a week ago, and yesterday in the Auckland District Court pleaded not guilty to a charge of refusing to move a vehicle.
Mr Minto say the community is under attack, and while most of the large coastal sections will be handed over to developers to build high priced mansions, the remaining state tenants will be put into multi-storey dwellings.
"The housing they are creating is closer to the Glen Innes shopping centre but it will be three, four-storey buildings, and we know from the developments that have happened overseas that these will look like a slum in five years time. They are generally poor quality, these large blocks, lots of people put in them, and they can become really ugly looking places," he says.
John Minto says all the promises Housing New Zealand made when it first proposed to refurbish the area’s housing stock were torn up when National came into power.