Pensioner housing project to provide grand training opportunity for To

South Waikato District Council's Pensioner Housing project is making steady progress.

The project was initially earmarked to be a partnership project between Council and Waiariki using carpentry students to construct the units. Unfortunately that arrangement did not come to fruition because the project would have been spread over a number of years which would not have been ideal for local residents. However Council is pleased that it has contracted a local building contractor JK Homes that will be working with local high school Gateway students to build the units under the supervision of qualified builders. Council's Pensioner Housing Project Manager, who is also a Licensed Building Practitioner, will continue to oversee the project.

"Council is very pleased that we are still able to build the units using a council-business-community partnership utilising local labour and further developing and training our young people," said Ben Smit, Council's Deputy Chief Executive. "An added benefit is that the project to build the six units will now only take two years rather than the three to four years it was originally going to take."

Council and Waiariki remain committed to continuing to identify and develop education and training opportunities for young people through continued support of the hugely successful Tokoroa Trade Training Centre.

"It was an easy decision for us to put in a quote for the project," said Kylie Kingi of JK Homes. "We fully support on the job training and providing young people the opportunities to gain trade skills. We also support sourcing labour locally and creating employment opportunities here in the South Waikato."

Supporting youth moving from training into business is second nature to Kylie and husband Jovan who employed two Waiariki students two years ago. Both students are now apprentices and still work for the company today.

"We also liked the idea of building new, warm and comfortable homes for our older people," she continued.

To date, all earthworks have been completed and the area is ready for the first three foundations to be laid. Part of the permanent fence has been installed with the remainder of the site still cordoned off with temporary fencing. Foundations will be laid in the coming weeks and people can expect to see the construction site hot up in early May.

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