August 11, 2019
Palmerston whānau ora scheme to expand
A Palmerston North programme that works with Housing New Zealand tenants had been given $4.6 million over the next two years to expand its operations.
Kainga Whānau Ora is led by a group of both iwi and Māori community organisaitons, Te Tihi o Ruahine Whānau Ora Alliance, and supported by a governance group of fifteen agencies and organisations including the Social Investment Agency, Ministry of Social Development and Police.
Spokesperson Tawhiti Kunaiti says Kainga Whānau Ora ensures the houses are structurally safe, warm and dry, and that whānau have pathways to education, training and other services.
"To have those homes it's important that whānau live in them with loving safe relationships with one another in those spaces, free from violence, all of those aspects that make a difference from a whare as a house versus a home," he says.
Mr Kunaiti says the service is already working with about 150 families, and the extra pūtea, from Whānau Ora and the Social Investment Agency, means it can add other 300 whānau and expand into Whanganui.
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