Community creates unique transportable homes for elderly
NEW YORK: A community is creating affordable ‘transportable’ housing for the elderly in a rural setting.
The first nine homes in Golden Bay’s community driven affordable housing project are expected to start being built in April.
The start is good news for pensioners with six of the nine homes being built for that age group – taking the wait list for that kind of accommodation down to zero.
The Golden Bay/Mohua Affordable Housing Project has received at least a dozen offers from landowners throughout Golden Bay, all interested in hosting more than 30 homes.
The scheme would see $150,000 transportable homes put on private or council-owned land for residents to rent or rent-to-own.
Christopher Bennett, the World Bank engineer who developed the project, said phase one would see a total of nine homes built.
This included two pensioners’ flats on council-owned land, behind the existing four pensioners’ cottages on Commercial Street. After 35 years, they would be donated to council.
Another would be located in Rockville to host a landowner’s elderly parents, and another on residents Shirley and Paul Marcussen’s land, in Hamama.
A suitable tenant, or tenants, were currently being matched with them, Shirley Marcussen said.
“We have a bit of spare land at the back of the property, and knowing there’s a housing shortage, we aren’t asking for any money [for hosting] because we’re not in it for that.”
The last five pensioners’ flats would be located on a section of Paul and Gilda Sangster’s land at Riley St in Tākaka township, subject to Tasman District Council approval.
“We are desperately short of homes and with the expanding mussel industry, it’s going to grow. We need accommodation for them,” Paul Sangster said.
Sangster leased most of the Reilly St land for commercial purposes, but had chosen to support housing on a strip of it.
It had been “desperate issue” for years with many residents and families unable to afford real estate, and a lack of rental supply also.
“Plus, a lot of the older people don’t actually want to go over the hill to live in retirement homes, they want to stay in Golden Bay, but there’s very little choice.”
Bennett, who developed the scheme as a volunteer, was grateful many residents were using the project to contribute to the community.
The pensioners flats would “wipe-out” the council’s wait-list for elderly accommodation, which had six people signed-up.
The community-owned housing provider Habitat for Humanity may lead the project, which qualified for Government rent subsidies for tenants on low incomes.
Materials for the first two houses had been ordered, and Frank Byrne Builders and other local contractors would lead construction.
“I have funding for the first houses, and one woman is particularly keen to finance one of the Tasman District Council pensioner flats,” Bennett said.
There were 15 other investors on the list interested in supporting the project.
Bennett said 37 residents had signed up for homes, and the Ministry for Social Development also had 54 on its priority list. “So I do not see any issue with filling up the homes.”
The scheme would see 60 square-metre, two-bedroom, kitset or modular, homes built on Golden Bay properties, with tenants paying $250-350 per week rent, and landowners given a return for hosting them.
Three-bedroom homes were also an option at a higher price.
They would be financed through a “community bond” run under a charitable trust, with funds provided by investors who would receive a return on capital.
The trust would build the homes and rent them on a secure, long-term “occupancy licence” contract with tenants, with landowners receiving about $100 a week per home.
Landowners would provide the right for the house to sit on the land for the agreed tenure.
