One service we provide that many people don’t even know about is social housing for elderly people. We currently own and manage 109 units in Matamata, Morrinsville and Te Aroha, located over 12 complexes, providing residents with privacy, independence, security and affordability. Many have special features such as disabled access showers, safety rails and ramps. The units are reasonably priced, below the market average for the area – however, most of the housing units are old with the first built in 1959 and the newest built in 1985.

We think it’s important that elderly people in our community have access to affordable, safe housing - particularly given the current housing crisis in New Zealand. There has been a waiting list for these houses for many years. Based on this, we want to investigate expanding our housing, and building new units that are modern, fit for purpose and meet the needs of tenants.

What's in the draft budget

Elderly Person’s Housing is entirely self-funding – this means that the rent covers all the costs of management and maintenance, and does not cost ratepayers anything. This also applies to renewal (building new houses), so any expansion of this service would have no impact on rates. Rough figures included in the budget: $617,000in 2022/23 and $1.6 million in 2024/25, which will have no impact on rates.