Building Pensioner Housing for our aged

Council is thrilled to announce that its Pensioner Housing project will be starting in the New Year using a public-private-community partnership model that provides for quality units while supporting local trade training, building on existing relationships and fostering a workforce into the future.

"Our key goal was to create a partnership that would achieve as much as possible with this funding while ensuring a great outcome for our community," said Council's Deputy Chief Executive, Ben Smit. "And we think we've nailed it by using Waiariki Institute of Technology Carpentry Trade Training students to build the units on land Council already owns."

"Real life experience for students and the benefits to the community has Waiariki excited about the opportunity to work collaboratively with Council on this project," said Mike Fogarty, Programme Area Lead for Waiariki.

Mr Fogarty said that students studying construction, electrical, interior design and landscape design will gain practical knowledge and be part of a team working under the guidance of tutorial staff and the Council.

"We are also pleased to have local industry involved through the provision of supplies. Discussions have been robust to ensure that the end product will meet the requirements for the elderly," continued Mr Fogarty. "For Waiariki it is important that we work with local industry to ensure our graduates gain sufficient knowledge to equip them with the right skills in their chosen field of employment. This project provides a great opportunity for all who are involved in the project."

The piece of land Council has earmarked for the development is the Kindergarten Street Reserve which is owned by Council (under Department of Conservation covenant). It is situated between Clyde Street, Kindergarten Street and Papanui Street next to the Senior Citizen's Hall and the Clyde Street Central Kids Kindergarten.

"This is our preferred site for several reasons," continued Mr Smit. "It is peaceful with a quiet ambiance, close to shops, hospital and the Senior Citizen's Hall, is flat land and has an existing road network."

Other options Council considered was purchasing/leasing other land and building new units and purchasing existing units/properties for refurbishment. These other options fell short of Council's favoured option for several reasons including site access implications, cost of land, size of land, proximity to town/health care, ambiance, presence of asbestos, cost of refurbishment, among others.

Mr Smit said that Council could have favoured a traditional tender/contract approach to construct the units.

"However in trying to get the most out of the funding we have allocated we looked outside the square and believe that by using Waiariki students from the Tokoroa campus to build the units we can supply quality houses at vastly reduced construction costs. Using Waiariki students means no labour cost and no mark-up on building costs."

The only labour costs will be a Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP) who will oversee the project to ensure quality and regulatory requirements are met, and possibly sub-contractors for specialist work.

"We hope that one of our local building firms will put their hand up for the role of LBP," continued Mr Smit.

"This project was unanimously supported by Councillors during the allocation of the $5 million funding process. Given this unique model, Council believes this project is a fantastic way to further our partnership with Waiariki, expand the Trade Training Centre initiative, provide local students an opportunity to get relevant and practical building experience and provide a pool of young builders for our local building business sector," said Mayor Neil Sinclair.

Council is currently working through the process of reclassifying the reserve status so that we can build residential properties on it. This will go out for formal public consultation soon.

Council sought guidance from existing pensioner unit occupiers, established a steering group and commissioned building plans by a Licensed Building Practitioner which are currently being reviewed by Council's Building Team.

In the coming months we will be finalising formal agreements with Waiariki, employing a Licensed Building Practitioner to oversee the work and develop a construction timeline. At this stage Council envisages building two to three units per year over three years. Ends: words: 690

Background to the project

Council currently owns and manages 78 one and two bedroomed pensioner units located in Tokoroa, Putāruru and Tīrau. Council has an active waiting list of 45 prospective tenants, 38 of whom want units in Tokoroa. The pensioner housing that Council administers is totally funded by rent; there is no ratepayer input into the activity.

We have an aging population. Statistics NZ showed that there are 3,477 people 65 years and over living in our district. This is expected to increase to 4,900 by 2026. Because of this district's demographic and deprivation profiles we are likely to have more need for this service than most other districts.

In May 2014, Council approved $950,000 from its Economic and Community Development Fund for the development of more housing for our older people. There were a multitude of options available for scoping and we looked at several in coming to our preferred option.

Below: artist's impression of the unit