Read our open letter to Chris Bishop below, and add your name if you support completing 300 publicly-owned homes as promised.

Kia ora Minister,

Every person in Aotearoa has a right to live in a warm home. 

In Te Whanganui-ā-Tara, you have the opportunity to complete 300 publicly-owned homes through the Arlington housing development in Mount Cook. 

We call for you to make the right decision, listen to our communities, and house people who have nowhere else to go.

There are so many reasons why we need to complete this development, and here are just a few of them:

We’ve got a site, and the mahi is already underway

The Government has already spent $48 million on the project for site preparation, including consenting and design. If the project doesn’t go ahead the consents will expire and the investment will go to waste and leave our at-risk communities without the homes that they have a right to. The most cost-effective and efficient way to build on the Arlington site now, is to proceed with what has already been designed - even if in a staged manner. 

Kāinga Ora needs leadership that recognises the scale of our housing crisis, and creates the solutions using the vacant sites in Mount Cook. We can use the resource that Kāinga Ora holds to plug the gap - yet the National-led Government has allocated no budget towards new builds after 2026. Arlington is ready to go now, yet it hasn’t been allocated funding before or after 2026. We must do better for those without a roof over their heads.

We can support local and save jobs - let’s play our part 

Let’s work together with Kāinga Ora to continue to engage local companies that were contracted to complete the Arlington development. Local companies like Aoraki Construction and McKee Fehl undertook a comprehensive procurement process but the uncertainty and delays means they have had to lay off workers in Wellington, with flow-on effects for subcontractors too. 

Our chance to create homes and reduce the public housing waitlist

As you know, the original design included 300 publicly-owned homes. We understand that you may now be considering a mixed-tenure development of public housing, private rentals and home ownership for this project. We strongly advise against this.

This is our opportunity to house 300 families in our communities who can’t afford to buy a house or rent in the private market in the current climate. 

There are 2,519 people on the public housing waitlist in Wellington, who are locked out of the private market and need decent, affordable public housing. There are a mixture of rentals and owner-occupier housing in the neighbourhood surrounding the development which provide the same benefits of mixed-tenure without privatising publicly-owned land. 

There is a need here - you have an opportunity to house people with the greatest need. 

Minister, there isn’t enough social housing in Wellington and reducing the supply has flow-on effects for other providers. For example, the Wellington City Council announced that they will be vacating 14 of their social housing complexes in order to carry out earthquake strengthening. There is so little social housing in Wellington that the Council will have to put out a tender for alternative accommodation, at great cost to our city.  

Our request

That the Minister supports the Arlington Kāinga Ora development to proceed with the original design and original tenure for desperately-needed public housing in Wellington City.

Signed by:

Politicians

Tamatha Paul MP

Mayor Tory Whanau

Councillor Ben McNulty

Councillor Teri O’Neill

Councillor Iona Pannett

Councillor Thomas Nash

Councillor Nīkau Wi Neera

Local businesses

Aoraki Construction Ltd 

Richardson Drilling Ltd

High Rise Group Ltd

Hot Chilly Limited

Lit Contracting Ltd

Vertbuild Ltd

Advanced Siteworks Ltd

GT Electrical Ltd

JD Rigging Services Ltd

Local organisations

Mount Cook Mobilised

Newtown Residents Association

Renters United

Everybody Eats Te Aro

ActionStation

Public Housing Futures

St Peter’s on Willis 

Victoria University of Wellington Students Association

Ngāi Tauira Māori Students Association

Historic Places Wellington

Live Wellington

Mount Cook School

Wellington High School