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Key facts

Social housing in New Zealand is dominated by Housing New Zealand with approximately 66,000 dwellings. By comparison the non-government social housing sector consists of just over 18,000 dwellings. Non-government social housing is provided by local government and community-based organisations (CBOs), including iwi/Māori and Pacific organisations.

HIF provides funding for the development of capacity and infrastructure for CBOs and local authorities in the form of term loans, conditional grants, suspensory loans, as well as feasibility and capacity development grants.

HIF funded social housing is targeted to the following groups:

  • low and moderate income households who cannot meet their own needs in the private market, who are unlikely to be offered a state house, for whom the Accommodation Supplement does not adequately address housing needs
  • low income households whose specific housing requirements are not being fully met by the market or by current housing policy settings, such as iwi, Māori groups, and Pacific peoples
  • low income households whose specialised housing needs are not being fully met, such as people with mental illness, disabilities, and elderly people with support needs.

HIF projects were selected to test approaches to the development of a sustainable non-government social housing sector and to gauge the interest of local government in retaining and expanding their social housing investment.

CBOs, but not local authorities, were eligible for feasibility and/or capacity development grants.  The evaluation found that CBOs used feasibility grants to develop working drawings, architectural and infrastructural designs/plans.  Development grants were most commonly used to develop governance, organisational, operational and housing policies and procedures.

HIF funding has been used for projects to purchase or build new dwellings and to modify existing buildings over a four-year period (July 2003 - June 2007).  From HIF's inception until 30 June 2007, projects to a value of $73.9 million have been achieved, with HIF funding of $49.7 million. A total of 729 units have been approved as either new builds (355 units) or modifications (374 units).  Of these, CBOs have projects involving 210 built units  and local authorities have projects approved for 145 built units and 374 modified units.  CBOs have contributed around 30 percent of the total costs of their projects ($13.9 million of the $46.8 million total), and local authorities contributed 38 percent ($10.4 million of the $27.1 million total).

Appropriated funding of $1.28 million (excluding GST) was used to support the establishment and fund the operation of Community Housing Aotearoa Incorporated (CHAI). CHAI has the purpose to promote and advocate for community housing at the local and national level. It currently represents over 130 member organisations including churches, non-profit community groups, Māori and Pacific housing providers and others.