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MORE INFORMATION REQUESTS

This morning I sent CCC two more information requests about social housing, the are as follows.

SOCIAL HOUSING NUMBERS

Further to the housing numbers published for the election, could I have an updated version?

I am specifically interested in the number of closed units.

Can you also provide a more detailed list of the 200 closed units, the reason for closure and the current intention for each.

I am wanting to update the data on our site at www.oursocialhousing.nz to keep it current and useful.

I would also like to know it it is possible to get regular change data (eg monthly) so we can keep it more current.

HEAT PUMP DELIVER SCHEDULE

Following on from this weeks obvious and well publicized confusion, can you please advise the follow.

1. An updated, month by month delivery plan.

2. Advice on when the venterlation systems will be installed.

3. Who were the successful contractors

4. When is it planned that progress will be reviewed in the first ~400 units to consider retendering.

5. Is the performance/ work load of the project management team going to be reviewed/monitored to ensure adequate resources so as not to encounter road blocks?

Could I also have a copy of the public tender documents published on GETS ~11 NOV 19 (YES I’m paying more attention to GETS emails now πŸ˜‰ πŸ™‚ )

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GOVERNMENT IS BORROWING SO SHOULD WE

The Government has quietly lifted the borrowing limit for the newly formed Kāinga Ora social housing agency by $4.05 billion to $7.1 billion so it can build and refit almost 4,800 more state houses on top of the 6,400 already planned. – Bernard Hickey – Newsroom

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2020/01/20/991131/kinga-oras-borrowing-limit-lifted-by-4b#

With the growing amount of international investment in our residential housing market, it makes good sense for government to invest in housing our most vulnerable.

I’ve been contending for some time that CCC needs to borrow up large and build more social housing in serious numbers.

We haven’t built in serious numbers for 45 years. With building products having a 50 year target life, our stock is coming to end of life.

CCC’s “Project 8011” is dragging and not getting the housing numbers in the CBD that are needed, something everyone seems to agree.

Council needs to be taking a lead with at least 10 social housing projects with 20 units each, contributing at least 200 units this year.

Social housing make council good money and reduces everyone’s rates so every citizen wins!

Council needs to invest up to $1.3b in 6,500 more social housing homes.

Social housing makes council good money and doesn’t cost ratepayers.

Every citizen wins.

I believe we could borrow, build and repay within 25 years and make a $45 million dollar profit each year to off set rate.

It’s important to me that we provide our citizens with the best possible housing.

We collect GST from tourists everyday in Christchurch and social housing is a perfect vehicle for pulling that tax money back into our community in a way that makes sure every citizen gets a return.

Some will argue that this would put council in competition with the private market. It’s just not true. The private market just isn’t interested in this part of the market. The market is also expanding, so council is only ‘joining’ the market.

Some contend that social housing is a state not civic role. Two points, keeping the state in check means providing competitive pressure.

Secondly, state profits go back to the state. It’s important to remember that many social housing tenants are hard working locals, like Stephen, who earn local money and we want profits returned to our community.

Civic social housing profits all our citizens.

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EV CHARGING ON SITE

Ed from EVNEX
I spent some time this afternoon with Ed from Evnex talking about their EV charging systems. The TOC,total cost of ownership for an EV, electric vehicle is now lower than petrol. EECA provide grants to help put these systems in place. I’m going to be looking for endorsement to put at least two of these at every CCC estate. EVs are ideal for providers of health care services. Our units get lots of visitors but EVs are chicken and egg. OCHT already has at least one. I own two. If we want healthcare providers to keep costs down and we want to keep travel costs down for out tenants we need to put in low cost future tech while government is subsidizing it.
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Weekly Update #4 – Waiting and Mailing Lists

I have now installed a forms feature on the site which now lets us start to collect information.

I can see reason for two different lists

MAILING LIST

Not everyone who’s interested in social housing wants to be checking in on Facebook or the web site, so a mailing list is important.

I’m also keen to understand as much about people interesting in social housing, as I can. So I’m going to propose a mailing list that also lets you tell us a bit about yourself, or not! πŸ™‚

WAITING LIST

In last years, last council meeting, we heard that there are 830 people on the social housing waiting list, but who are you? What are you looking for, what is your situation and where do you want to live?

So I’m proposing we’ll collect the following, or as much as you choose to share with us.

  • Name
  • Email address
  • Phone number

All of these will be optional… actually everything will be optional.

My plan is that I’ll simply qualify the quality of interest based on the level of information provided. Clearly someone who wants to give you all their information is serious about wanting something.

  • Required Bedrooms
  • Required Beds – we don’t assume that people need or want a bedroom each, but we want to know how many people you want to have living in a space.
  • Current suburb – we don’t know where you actually live, we’d just like to know where your community is.
  • Desired suburb – we assume that people have been moved around as a result of the earthquakes so we’d like to know where you’d like to live
  • Schooling – do you need to be close to a school?
  • Public Transport – do you need to be close to it?
  • Work Suburb – we want to understand where you need to travel to.
  • Drug use – this one’s quite important. Right now CCC have units that people have used drugs in, they simply need cleaning. The government standards have changed and for some people, they’d sooner have a more affordable home than where they are, so there is a case to argue that these units should be made available.
  • About you – age range, gender, health – if you’re 85 and in poor health then you need higher quality housing than I do. Double rather than single glassing and better heating, for example.
  • Current housing – we’re keen to understand people who are couch surfing, those who are simply unhappy with private accommodation or other reasons
  • Reason for your interest – as above, we’d like to know why you want social housing. We understand that in some causes what people really want is help to improve their situation but just don’t know where to reach. In this journey so far, Stephen and I have learnt a lot about services we didn’t know existed.

I’ll be posting this on Facebook, so I’m keen to hear your comments before we set this alight! πŸ™‚