UPDATE 19/06/2023 THOMPSON FAMILY STATEMENT

(Poster prepared by Benji Nathan)

MEDIA RELEASE

Watch the Newshub coverage about this redevelopment below. Special thanks to local resident Benji Nathan, Auckland GreyPower and Newshub.

COMMUNITY MEETING INVITE

You are invited to our second community meeting at 6:45pm on 20th April 2023 at Blockhouse Bay Bowls Club (33 Terry Street, Blockhouse Bay) chaired by local resident Benji Nathan to explore what our next steps are going forward.

In our previous meeting, Kainga Ora had made it clear that they would not make any changes to the redevelopment proposal to explicitly host pensioners on the land that was donated to them nor to address any concerns including traffic, infrastructure, schools raised by locals. Kainga Ora believed these are the responsibilities of Auckland Council, Auckland Transport, Ministry of Education, local schools, instead of theirs. “This development is for you.” the spokesperson from Kainga Ora said. 

Local MP Dr Deborah Russell from the Labour Party was also given the opportunity to support her constituents from Blockhouse Bay. However, she had made it clear that she supported the redevelopment proposal as it is because she couldn’t “take a case against [her] own government”. She also considered that all matters raised in the meeting were “closed” and the community engagement was done “in good faith”. When asked what our next step would be, she said “talk to Auckland City Council…”

The second community meeting will be chaired by local Resident Benji Nathan without Kainga Ora. MP Mark Mitchell from the National Party and their candidate for New Lynn electorate Paulo Garcia will also be attending to lend their support and share their experience and expertise. 

As a community, we need to stand together, united in our effort to show solidarity for what we believe is best for the community.

(Poster prepared by Benji Nathan)

Read below to find out more about this redevelopment proposal and why people are signing this petition. 

PETITION ARTICLE

Kainga Ora plan to go ahead with one of their largest public housing developments on Bolton Street next to Blockhouse Bay Intermediate to replace the existing 51 public houses including 33 pensioner flats with 68 new public residential houses. The proposed redevelopment includes a mixture of 2-5 bedroom double-storey stand-alone, duplex and terraced public houses and a public road extending the existing Marlowe Road onto Bolton Street.

A resource consent has been lodged to Auckland Council recently by Kainga Ora and Kainga Ora has chosen not to make the application a public notified consent so the voices of the public will not be heard. Many residents were only made aware of this development recently through a letter from Kainga Ora informing them the consent application has been lodged to council and the new tenants will be from “all walks of life”.

Blockhouse Bay is an already busy suburb in central west Auckland with a population of approximately 16,500. The existing infrastructure is already at its capacity and will require renewal. As evident by the recent flooding event in Auckland in January 2023, the Bolton Street, where the proposed development will be connected to, was severely inundated causing critical damage to the surrounding properties and road.

(The day Bolton Street flooded - taken January 2023 - due to heavy rain and inundation in Avondale stream)

Despite this, without informing the community on what the development plan is and having deliberately missed the site plan in their letter to the neighbours, Kainga Ora still decided to go ahead and proposed 68 additional public residential houses upstream. What is more, the new houses will see the demolition of the existing 33 pensioner flats which have been the homes to many elderly members of the community for over 30 years. These elderly tenants have lived there for so many years and built their retirement lives there. They are safe and content. They have a large court where they can socialise with others and play with their grandchildren when they come visit. They have a house where they can call home, and a community where they can place their trust in... But now.. it is all gone.. Without being offered much hope to return to the same place in the future, they have to pack up and move, and now they are scattered all over Auckland into new suburbs where they do not know anyone else and have to start everything from the beginning again...

(We later discovered that the land on which the existing pensioner flats is sited was gifted by Roy Benjafield Thompson to Auckland Council who later transferred its ownership to Kainga Ora in 2003. On a metal plaque outside the premise it reads "In memory of his late wife Hilda Thompson and parents Blanche and Ernest Thompson, Roy Benjafield Thompson presented the land on which these flats are sited to the Auckland City Council as a gift to be employed expressly for providing housing for senior citizens of Auckland." Sadly, Roy’s wishes will no longer be fulfilled from now on and these same elder residents whom the land was donated for are now being and have been relocated to elsewhere...)

(We also found the following from council archives "Sixty-five-year-old Mr. Roy Thompson, or "Darby" as he is known to his friends, owns four acres of residential land at Avondale, has eight cats, a horse and lives in a house which is not connected to the power and has most of the windows broken. But last week he put on a white shirt and went into the city to have afternoon tea and cakes with city councillors. The reason? He had just donated 1¼ acres of his land to the council for pensioner housing. "It was in memory of my late wife and family." said Mr Thompson...He has had countless offers for his property from speculators who tell him that he could built a mansion from the proceeds and live in wealth for the rest of his life. "But I don't want to sell - nobody can make me" he says, shaking his fist...Mr Thompson wanted to do something for the elderly people, who he says have not been as fortunate as himself. ”I am determined to do something good before I go. So last week after months of negotiating, the council and Mr Thompson finally signed the documents necessary.")

(The original gift agreement has stated clearly that the land was gifted to council for the purpose of pensioner housing. The agreement was executed and signed by the then Deputy Mayor of Auckland)

The new public houses that will replace the existing houses will be more concentrated and clustered, and together they will host more than 200 tenants (none of the new houses are designed specifically for pensioners). The community has concerns over the suitability of the design for its intended purpose, its large and dominating nature when comparing to its current surrounding neighbourhood, and the change of characteristics to the existing neighbourhood. The community questions whether adequate thoughts had been put in by the designers to come up with this design for its intended purpose, and what property/tenant management services, policing, will be put in place by the housing providers to effectively manage and ensure the safety of both the Kainga Ora’s residents and local residents in the future. 

(Concentrated public housing has been a controversial topic for debate in literature. Some study found that there is a direct correlation between crime, fear of crime and concentration of public housing, and crime hotspots are more often associated with cluster of public housing and project outward into the private properties (Judd et al 2005). Studies carried out by New Zealand Centre for Research Evaluation and Social Assessment (CRESA, 2015) concluded that there are many factors that influence the outcome of social housing development. These factors include 1.Design of both dwellings and surrounding neighborhood. 2. Allocation and tenant management. 3. Neighborhood service and amenities, policing. 4. Retention of housing and community for social housing and low income households)

Then there are the schools, medical practices and community facilities to support the new 200 additional tenants. Chaucer primary school which is about 300 metres to the north currently are hosting 200 pupils from year 1-6. Blockhouse Bay Intermediate next door has a capacity of 800 from year 7-8 for a wider school zone area. There are about only 11 doctors in Blockhouse Bay across the only 3-4 registered GP medical centres. These places are already stretched. The local residents think Kainga Ora is disconnected from the local community and would have opposed this redevelopment proposal if they were asked or shown the plan in the first place.

The development and redevelopment of public housing is not just happening in Blockhouse Bay. It is also happening or will soon happen in your neighbourhood as public housing development and redevelopment is a top agenda supported by the government to bring more affordable housing arrangement to address housing shortage and the increasing number of people in need of social homes due to cost of living (Robertson & Woods, 2022). The government has a good intention to help resolve this pressing issue by giving everyone especially the low income families a chance to live and thrive in well-established suburbs, and the Blockhouse Bay community has been receptive to the idea of well designed mixed social housing such as the existing 51 social houses (33 pensioner flats and 18 families houses) which we have been living with on this site for years since the 1980s. But the issues with this redevelopment proposal are the lack of considerations of its impacts on the existing community and lack of consultation in good faith by the public housing providers, as well as their deliberate avoidance from the local community so that they can rush and achieve their development objectives within given timeframe. 

For large complex public housing developments, as they will have deep lasting impacts on the community, a more thoughtful approach is needed and work should be carried out together with the local community to build what is needed and best for the public and local community, and most importantly to build trust and faith for the future. Why? Imagine one day you wake up only to be told that your next door is going to be redeveloped for this number of public housing and resource consent has been lodged without your input, and the tenants will be from “all walks of life”. Imagine the streets you will be travelling on in the future. Imagine the neighborhood your children will be brought up within. Think about the flooding that happened in January will occur more constantly in the future because more houses are built on your upstream and less green area is left. Think about the traffic jams that you will have to endure each day will get even worse. But most importantly, in this case in particular, think about the genuine and selfless intention of the people who donated the land and the safety and well-being of the displaced elders and families who are now finding their ways in their new communities.... Public housing providers could do and should do better and should set a good example so the private developers can follow.  

We want Darby's wishes honoured and pensioners back in the community they belonged.

We want our voices heard and changes made in the redevelopment proposal.

Let’s unite and fight back!

Sign the petition and make your voice heard. 

 

References

CRESA. Neighbourhood Social Mix and Outcomes for Social Housing Tenants: Rapid Review. (2015). https://thehub.swa.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/Social-Housing-Rapid-Review-Report.pdf

Judd, B., Samuels, R., & Barton, J. (2005). Social City 01 The Effectiveness of Strategies for Crime Reduction in Areas of Public Housing Concentration. https://www.be.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/upload/research/centres/cf/CFpresentations/soacjuddsamuels.pdf

ROBERTSON, G., & WOODS, M. (2022, November 11). New financing arrangements to continue to deliver Kāinga Ora build programm. Beehive. https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/new-financing-arrangements-continue-deliver-k%C4%81inga-ora-build-programme