Kia ora whānau, happy new year! I hope you have all enjoyed the festive season and summer sun (when it is out). Please find attached our legal opinion in regards to whether Kāinga Ora is required to reserve land that was donated for pensioner housing. I have just met and discussed this with with our newly elected local MP - Paulo Garcia, who will be raising this directly with the Minister of Housing - Chris Bishop and the Minister of Local Government and Auckland - Simeon Brown in favour of seeing pensioner housing remain in the Blockhouse Bay Community.

I have emphasised in passing this on to Kāinga Ora and Council that we as a community demand Kāinga Ora pause any lodgment of a resource consent until this matter is resolved. We wish Kāinga Ora to engage with both Auckland Council and the Blockhouse Bay community as to what the plans are to honour the gifting of the land for pensioner housing and how the establishment of trust obligations will be handled.

Below you will find a brief summary of the legal opinion for those who don’t want to read it all, who this has been sent to and the latest from Kāinga Ora.
Brief Summary of Legal Opinion (reasons for advice are contained within attached images)

• When the land was gifted a trust for purpose was created.
  Because no scheme (or evidence of) was submitted to the Attorney General, Auckland Council are unable to transfer the trust obligations when selling the land.
• Thus it remained subject to the trust obligations of the land - pensioner housing.
• The Council could fufil the trust obligations by applying the proceeds of sale to pensioner housing - Council has been unable to provide what the sale was for.
• Council remains liable to the trust obligations - despite the land being owned by Kāinga Ora.
• Kāinga Ora is not able to fufil the obligations of the trust as their eligibility criteria is on need not an age group - Mr Thompson had donated the land for pensioner housing. 
  • Thus those whom the trust was created for may be excluded.

The subject matter of the trust has been separated from the trustee (Council) unless:

• Council can locate the proceeds of the sale and apply it to pensioner housing
• The land is transferred back to Council and they use it for pensioner housing.
• Council submits a scheme application to the Attorney General so that Kāinga Ora become the trustee.

Who has been sent this:

• Government: Minister of Housing - Chris Bishop, Minsiter of Local Government and Auckland - Simeon Brown, Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) - Tama Potaka,and Minister of Seniors - Casey Costello
• Auckland Council: Mayor - Wayne Brown, Governance Office, Resource Consent Office
• Kāinga Ora: Regional Director - Taina Jones

Latest from Kāinga Ora (21/12)
“We have not finalised our design plan. We expect to let the community know about resource consent and progress for redevelopment by late January 2024”.

Attachment: Legal opinion