Gimme shelter

The axing of thousands of planned new homes and staff cuts at Kāinga Ora signal a turning point in the state's role as key provider of social housing

- writes PETER BALE

It was like Elon Musk came in with his chainsaw," says a Kāinga Ora staffer of the state housing agency's restructuring. The decapitation of the ambitious project to dramatically expand social housing and build model communities calls into question the fate of almost a century of government policy and the very idea of state housing as we've come to know it.

Housing Minister Chris Bishop's “turnaround plan” is far more than the traditional cycle of National and Labour governments cutting or expanding investment in social housing, say both proponents and critics of the previous Labour administration's attempt to create a world-class central agency to build thousands of homes and sophisticated, integrated communities. This time, it may be terminal in terms of a state agency planning communities and building social housing en masse. The government wants a big shift in responsibility to community housing groups at this point ill-equipped for the scale of the job.

It is arguably a turning point in the myth of an egalitarian New Zealand where we accept the state having a key role in social housing provision. Few believe a future government could recreate the huge investment of money and people Labour committed to Kāinga Ora (critics say without regard to cost or strategy).

More than 600 staff – about 17% – are going in the current cuts, which come on top of losses of a similar magnitude since December 2023 in design and construction expertise.

It's the end of a huge investment in new homes and methods of building homes and communities pushed by Labour and led by a passionate former Fletcher Building executive, Andrew McKenzie. In what it first called a “reset”, the coalition has refocused the state rental housing agency on its existing housing stock and tenants, and abandoned building at scale to try to solve a 25,000-strong state house waiting list.