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A church in Gisborne is tackling its local housing shortage.
It is the driving force behind a plan to build module eco homes for families in need.
The Ahuru Mowai Housing Project has the twofold aim of increasing ownership of energy-efficient homes and boosting employment.
Ahuru Mowai plans to build seven module homes in Ida Road (Kaiti) and two others in Wainui.
“We’re still about heart but doing that in a different way,’’ said Minister Tom Crawford from the Oasis Community Church, (formerly the Mega Life Church). “We are rising again as Oasis Community Church and one of our projects is the Ahuru Mowai Housing Project.”
“It is also a time to show our humanity,” says project director Lizz Crawford. “Poverty Bay has the highest rate of whanau or families in need of healthy, affordable housing to rent or own.
“Our vision is for everyone to have a place to call home in Aotearoa.”
A Wainui Road house owned by the church will be sold to co-fund the project.
The project will feature Green Magic Homes from Mexico. Research into Earthcube houses from Vietnam is also being carried out.
Green Magic Homes structures are covered by soil and rich greenery, making them energy-efficient and energy-saving while keeping a temperature-balanced interior. Earthcube houses are made of single-use containers.
“The foreign homes are cheaper, especially if whanau are trained to do some aspects themselves.”
A New Zealand Green Magic house had been built in Horokiwi, Lower Hutt and in the next few months, people would be undergoing training to build them.
In Napier and Hastings there are 615 people on Housing New Zealand’s waiting list and a shortage of 1800 homes.
About 440 children and their families will spend this winter in a motel in Hawke’s Bay – one of the country’s least affordable places to live.
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