25 signatures reached
To: ACT Party, Green Party, Labour Party, National Party, New Zealand First, Te Pāti Māori
Housing Changes Lives in Ōtaki - Build Public Housing
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We call on all the political parties to commit to building and supporting enough public housing in Kāpiti — beginning with Ōtaki — so that everyone has a safe and stable place to call home, and to partner with Ngā Hapū o Ōtaki to support papakāinga and Kaupapa Māori housing.
Why is this important?
Every whānau in Kāpiti should have a decent and stable home – one that is warm, dry, accessible, affordable, and secure. A home that allows people in our communities to stay healthy, keep children in school, contribute to our community, and plan for the future. Decent homes should not be a luxury or a market reward. They are essential infrastructure for care, connection, and contribution.
Housing changes lives. But right now, Kāpiti is facing a severe and growing housing crisis, with Ōtaki experiencing the highest housing stress in the district.
Private rentals are unaffordable and unavailable in our community. Only 20% of Ōtaki renter households are able to afford the median market rent[1] and there are so few available at a price people can afford. Public and community housing supply is far too low, making up only a small percentage of our housing stock[2]. People experiencing homelessness are increasingly invisible, living in cars, garages, overcrowded homes, boarding houses, or temporary accommodation.
There are around 129 Kāpiti households on the housing register but there are many more whānau experiencing housing stress. Reductions in emergency housing numbers have not translated into permanent, secure homes. Instead we are seeing preventable harm from a lack of secure and genuinely affordable housing: poorer health, disrupted education, economic stress, and fractured communities.
Despite the housing crisis deepening in our community, the National-led Government has cancelled new Kāinga Ora homes in Ōtaki and continues to under-resource hapū, iwi and Māori-led housing solutions.
It doesn’t have to be like this.
The Government can make the choice to increase funding for more public housing, support hapū and iwi housing, and reshape our housing system to be for living and not for profit.
We call on all political parties to commit to:
- Build enough public housing in Kāpiti — starting with Ōtaki: this includes resuming and completing cancelled or stalled Kāinga Ora developments. Then, committing to building at a scale that meets existing and projected needs, not just incremental growth. Kāpiti needs 129 homes to house the whānau on the housing register immediately.
- Support community and iwi-led housing solutions: Partner with Ngā Hapū o Ōtaki to support papakāinga and Kaupapa Māori housing. Recognise community housing as an important part of the public housing system, not a silver bullet or stop-gap.
- Treat decent homes as essential infrastructure: recognise housing as foundational to health, education, and employment outcomes. Make sure homes are warm, dry, accessible and meet people’s needs across their lifetimes.
- Commit to long-term, cross-party solutions: support durable, bipartisan approaches to public housing so progress is not undone by political cycles, providing certainty to councils, iwi, and CHPs so they can plan and build with confidence.
When people have decent homes, communities thrive. It means people are healthier, children learn better, whānau are more connected and economically secure, and our collective pool of resources shift from crisis response to crisis prevention.
We already have the knowledge, skills, and partnerships to fix this. What is missing is political commitment at the scale required.
About us
Our Ōtaki Public Housing Group has come together from a shared concern for the lack of public housing for people in our area. We believe this is a key election issue and want to raise public awareness and political commitment for more public housing. Our vision is "All whānau have decent housing because housing is a right and housing changes lives". We bring locally specific information and attention to Action Station's Public Housing Futures national campaign.
Contact us via [email protected]
References:
- Not just a house, a life - Understanding housing need specific to Ōtaki, The Urban Advisory, September 2022
- Our housing stock is approximately 220 Kāinga Ora homes (88 in Ōtaki), 50 from community housing providers, alongside 118 council units for older people (66 in Ōtaki) (see MHud Housing Dashboard).