Whangārei mayor Vince Cocurullo has hit out at Kāinga Ora in the wake of a recent Kensington community meeting.
Cocurullo said Kāinga Ora needed to do a better job of listening to communities affected by its social housing plans.
His comments come as more than 200 new Kāinga Ora homes are being built across Whangārei, in 20 developments.
Cocurullo recently attended a Kamo Rd meeting organised by Kensington and Ōtangarei residents affected by the new Kāinga Ora housing development.
"The community at this meeting felt they were not being listened to," Cocurullo said.
"While I respect and appreciate the role of Kāinga Ora, the feedback I have had from the community is that there is room for improvement in how it takes community feedback into account," he said.
"I want Kāinga Ora working with communities," Cocurullo said.
Local Democracy Reporting Northland asked the North's Kāinga Ora regional director Jeff Murray for his report card on how well he thought the crown entity had been engaging with receiving communities. He did not specifically respond with a report card score.
Murray said he was proud of the work his team had been doing on the ground in Kensington to hear from local people and address their concerns.
Kāinga Ora is changing the face of Kensington and Ōtangarei, with intensified housing that includes two new three-storey walk-up apartment blocks in the area.
Twenty-one new Kāinga Ora homes are planned for the two 11-metre-high multi-family apartment blocks in Cairnfield Rd that are due to be completed by mid-2025.
They will together replace five existing state houses built as early as the 1930s - one walk-up will replace three homes with 12, and the other two existing homes with nine.
A walk-up is a term from the United States that originated in the 1920s.
Walk-ups are common in high density housing such as in New York. They are multi-occupier lower rise apartment blocks with stairs - that are typically external - to move between floors, rather than a lift.
Cairnfield Rd currently features compact traditional New Zealand mixed private and state housing, largely built with one home per property and almost exclusively single storey.
"It's understandable there is some hesitancy when the first buildings of this type are planned in a community, but we have been listening to those concerns and balancing them with the many people telling us housing in Whangārei is unaffordable and more must be done to increase supply," Murray said.
The Cairnfield Rd blocks are among more than 60 new mixed-design Kāinga Ora homes planned for the wider Kensington area in the next two years.
The crown entity selects from a range housing styles when building in local areas.
New Kāinga Ora housing is also planned for Churchill St, King St, Kamo Rd and Lovatt Cres.
Cocurullo said residents' concerns over Kāinga Ora's housing densities and proposals in the area needed to be considered, particularly at the initial development stages.
"As a community leader, I acknowledge the valuable role Kāinga Ora plays in providing much-needed housing, but stress the need for it to listen to and work closely with our community, in the early stages of its developments," Cocurullo said.
He said the crown entity had a legal responsibility to understand, support and enable the aspirations of the community in relation to urban development.
Murray said Kāinga Ora typically linked with immediate neighbours and the wider local community to ensure they were aware of plans, including via letter drops, community drop-ins, online forums and other digital tools.
It also often connected with councils, mana whenua, schools, service providers and local MPs.
"All this has played out in Whangārei as we look to provide public housing," Murray said.
Kāinga Ora had already met Kensington residents three times and was planning more meetings. He had also recently met the mayor and local community leaders to discuss Kāinga Ora's Whangārei public housing plans.
"Our engagement work aims to keep communities up to date about the homes being built in their area, and to support thriving communities," Murray said.
Murray said Kāinga Ora had a mandate to deliver more homes to meet urgent community needs.
Cairnfield Rd's walk-ups were in line with WDC's medium density residential zoning, which allowed for an increasing prevalence of low-rise apartments, walk-ups, terrace housing, semi-detached housing and detached townhouses.
"This zone, in this location, was part of a District Plan process which was consulted on widely and adopted by (Whangārei District Council) WDC," Murray said.
Kāinga Ora plans to build 62 new homes around Kensington in the next two years – almost 70% of these finished in 2024 and mostly two-storeys. The first completion is expected early next year, at 24 Kamo Rd with five two-bedroom terraced homes.
Kāinga Ora’s current and planned Whangārei and Northland housing activity can be viewed here.
By Local Democracy Reporter Susan Botting
Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
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