November 14, 2018
Cash key for home hopes
A Māori housing advocate says wānanga aren't enough, and the Government needs to put together a mortgage programme to assist whānau Māori into their own homes.
Papakainga Solutions director Victoria Kingi, who has helmed many housing developments in the Bay of Plenty, is at the National Māori Housing Conference in Ngaruawāhia where Māori Development Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced Sorted Kainga Whenua, a programme of workshops to help whānau decide if they are ready to pursue home ownership.
Ms Kingi says government assistance is necessary to tackle Māori housing challenges across the continuum from those who are looking for a home to rent to those who want to build or buy.
She says workshops are a good way to transfer knowledge, but people also want a tangible outcome.
"So workshops are good, transfer of knowledge is good, financial literacy is good, learning how to budget is good, but when it costs on average $670,000 for a home in New Zealand, that means it costs whānau Māori 28 times their annual salary to buy a home so certainly there still needs to be a finance option for Māori to buy their own homes," Ms Kingi says.
She says government should consider partnering with land trusts and post-settlement iwi on strategies that can house future generations.
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