Northland man Ricky Houghton has won the New Zealand Local Hero of the Year Award at the New Zealander of the Year award ceremony in Auckland tonight.
Mr Houghton has led He Korowai Trust in Kaitaia since its inception in the early 2000s.
His work focuses on ensuring people are freed from adversity and given love, hope and a pathway to a better future.
Over the past 10 years, Ricky has saved more than 550 homes from mortgagee sales in the Far North, keeping 6400 vulnerable Kiwis housed.
He has overseen services in justice and whanau development for more than 800 families and created business enterprise worth $10 million using natural resources while taking no personal profit.
The other two people up for the award were, Dave Letele for fighting obesity through his healthy lifestyle programmes and Mohamud Mohamed's for his work with young migrants.
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