September 30, 2021
“Koretake” banks force housing strategy change
Associate Housing Minister Peeni Henare says bank lending policies are still a major impediment to getting Māori into their own homes.
A new Māori housing strategy, Maihi Ka Ora, was released this week.
Mr Henare says the document should be read alongside the Government Policy Statement on Housing and Urban Development and pulls together what is already happening under Te Maihi o te Whare Māori – the Māori Housing Innovation Framework for Action.
He says much depends on partnerships with iwi to create progressive home ownership schemes because banks still won’t lend on multiply-owned Māori land and papakainga.
“The day the lockdown was announced I was in Opunake giving keys to a whānau who had just successfully come through the progressive home ownership kaupapa. It can only work with partnership and we have had to do that because banks are koretake and I know a number of them are looking at changing their settings but ultimately it is just not working for our whānau and it is not happening fast enough for the crown,” Mr Henare says.
He says the previous Government’s Maori housing strategy, the 2014 Te Whare Ahuru, failed because it was not given any resources and did not have any levers to change other parts of the system.