March 22, 2016
Minister optimistic on housing
Maori Development Minister Te Ururoa is optimistic more Maori groups will want to take a hands on approach to housing their people.
Two Bay of Plenty family land trusts have joined New Zealand and Australian infrastructure and property management companies to bid for all the state housing stock in Tauranga, and a Wellington trust this weekend opened a 14-unit papakainga built with help from government funding.
Mr Flavell says the Maori housing network in Te Puni Kokiri is picking up a lot of other interest.
"A lot of our people in this housing area have expressed a desire to be amongst it and that's why we voted recently for these sorts of reforms that allow Maori social housing providers to be in this space because we think along the lines of Whanau Ora, that we have the answers for ourselves, we engage far better with our own people, provide far better support," he says.
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