Kāinga Ora Wellington Region Community Update
Meri Kirihimete, Merry Christmas and Seasons Greetings,
It's been a busy few months for our team as we have been around our rohe engaging with community and supporting our customers. Here are some of the awesome highlights Kāinga Ora have achieved across the Wellington Region.
New and retrofitted homes
We have delivered 217 new homes this year and have a further 251 in the process of being delivered next year. In addition, we have completed 237 retrofits and are in the process of completing a further 180 for next year. For more information about our projects you can visit our Wellington region webpage.
Engagement opportunities
We have completed over 200 engagement events including blessings, community days, open homes, and bus tours. Below we have shared some of the highlights from the last quarter.
Wellington
Nau mai, haere mai Te Ara Tauhou
The sun came out, as Peter Jackson blessed 29 newly completed homes at Te Ara Tauhou on Hindmarsh Street in Johnsonville.
The name Te Ara Hauhou was gifted from mana whenua and means "the way" or "the path" to a "new journey” and this development will live up to its name by providing a great foundation for the whānau who have recently moved in.
Te Ara Hauhou includes small pocket parks, a playground and large community space to help build and foster connections between neighbours and the wider community.
This project is a credit to all the subcontractors involved. We’re incredibly proud of the work delivered and know that it’s providing a warm, safe and dry place for Wellingtonians to call home. We are also very excited to be partnering with the YMCA on on-going activation of the community space which we know will be vital to creating a thriving community here.
Tamariki Disco – Berhampore Community turned out!
We recently partnered with Berhampore School and the YMCA to create a Tamariki Disco at Centennial Hall. Our very own DJ House laid down the beats for tamariki and their whānau could dance their hearts out.
With over 100 people in attendance, it created a great opportunity to connect our customers and community with key services and activities that YMCA are operating out of the community centre.
Lower Hutt
George Street Celebration
It was lovely celebrating the completion of our development project at George Street in Stokes Valley. We had an amazing array of stakeholders and neighbours join us to admire the handy work of our Construction and Innovation team and build partners. The best part was hearing the genuine desire of the community to welcome their new neighbours.
Wairarapa
It was a picture perfect summers day in Masterton, as we celebrated with tenants and our partners the completion of a new toy boxes, planter boxes and community notice board. Project partners Switched On Housing put on a brilliant bbq, Nuku Ora brought the fun with a play trailer and were amongst the tamariki and rangatahi. The new community resources were built and set up beautifully by the Masterton Menz Shed and R H Robinson. It was a great day to celebrate the community partnerships built and a vision come to life to support Kāinga ora and Emerge whānau at Iorns St.
Porirua
Te Rā Nui - Eastern Porirua Development Project
Spook-tacular fun this Halloween
To celebrate the completion of significant civils and infrastructure work on our Esk development site our team hosted an afternoon of fun and exploration.
The development isn’t a standard housing development site. The large-scale project Te Rā Nui have thought about and delivered innovative ways to future proof the wider neighbourhood, enable more housing, all whilst protecting what is most precious to the East – our taiao (environment).
We had over 120 people from the local community attend this event, who enjoyed the fun activities, BBQ, colouring in competition, Halloween themed scavenger hunt and rides with USO bikes.
For more information and to see the site for yourself check out - Spook-tacular fun this Halloween » Te Rā Nui - Eastern Porirua Development
Kāpiti
Community celebrates new homes on Ruapehu Street
It was great to see so many of the community interested in the two new homes completed on Ruapehu Street. The local team enjoyed a full circle moment, where neighbours, who were present at the sod-turning prior to construction, shared their excitement to welcome the new customers.
Ngā hapū o Ōtaki whakatau & pop up event
In November, we partnered with Ngā Hapū o Ōtaki on a whakatau and pop-up community event to connect our new customers into some of the key social services available in the community. The event was a hit and our customers enjoyed meeting their new neighbours through connecting over fun activities and kai.
Staying informed
If you haven't checked it out yet, you can now find all of the latest information on our development projects on our webpage. We have developed interactive maps for each city in our region (Wellington, Porirua, Kāpiti, Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt, and Wairarapa) to enable you to see a city-wide view of our development projects, which we update regularly.
We’re committed to keeping our communities informed throughout the development journey and sharing the work we’re doing together. If you have any questions about our projects, please feel free to contact us.
Wellington Region Community Engagement and Partnerships Team
wellingtondevelopments@kaingaora.govt.nz
Please note that our offices will be closed from Tuesday 24 December and will be back on Friday 3 January. We will respond upon our return.
Please enjoy a safe holiday season and see you again in 2025!
