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March 24, 2023
Wairoa looks to Jackson for housing help
Peter Verschaffelt
Posted On March 24, 2023
Download AudioWairoa people are counting on the Government to literally help them rebuild their lives in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle.
Leon Symes, the chair of post-settlement governance entity Tātau o Te Wairoa, says at least 150 homes need to be replaced after the floods that inundated a large part of the town and filled houses and shops with silt.
He says locals took the opportunity to share their fears with Maori Development and Associate Housing Minister Willie Jackson when he visited this week.
“So obviously there’s still a lot of mamae in the community regarding the response that occurred. It was a good opportunity for whanau to obviously vent that frustration. And then obviously talking to our flood affected marae and them, who were there. And then finally we rounded it off by a proposal that we have put in front of him regarding setting up an offsite manufacturing for a homes facility in Wairoa,” Mr Synes says.
A building program could provide training, jobs and homes for the struggling community, which feels isolated both geographically and politically.
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