{"id":18721,"date":"2026-10-14T05:48:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T16:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18721"},"modified":"2026-10-14T05:48:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T16:48:17","slug":"social-housing-development-offers-residents-ability-to-use-electric-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18721","title":{"rendered":"Social housing development offers residents ability to use electric cars"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Residents of a new social housing development in Auckland’s Glen Eden will be able to book and drive two electric cars as part of a trial to reduce their transport costs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Visionwest has built 24 apartments on land near the local baptist church that founded the organisation, and people who are on the Ministry of Social Development’s housing register move in next month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Chief executive Lisa Woolley said it wanted to help provide affordable housing and the subsidised rent included the use of two electric cars.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Running a car is expensive, it’s especially expensive right now<\/a> … and so what we’ve provided through partnership with others are two bookable EV cars.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She said the apartments were close to both bus and train stations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Our hope is that in time the tenants won’t even need to own a car. We’re excited about that, it’s about making a sustainable transport option for the whanau that live there,” Wolley said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Once we get whanau in we’ll be able to share with them how they can use those cars, we’re really keen to see them well used.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There were more than 1100 people on the wait list for public housing in West Auckland and more than 19,000 waiting across the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Visionwest’s outreach team worked alongside many people struggling to find stable housing<\/a> and afford basic living costs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“There a lots of varied reasons why people are in housing distress … we need more houses that are for social and affordable housing to make sure that people can access affordable housing with the right support,” Woolley said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Visionwest<\/div>
Visionwest chief executive Lisa Woolley says more affordable housing is needed.<\/p>\n

Supplied<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Visionwest housed more than 1000 households and last year helped 441 families move into permanent housing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The 24 apartments were among 800 tenancies it managed, including 200 town houses it owned.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The apartments were the fist stage of its Village of Hope – Te K\u0101inga o te T\u016bmanako, which officially opened on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The development was supported by the Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport with financing from the Community Housing Funding Agency and Visionwest’s own funding.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Woolley said the residents would have access to wraparound support and be in a community that included kaumatua and older residents, people with disabilities, families and single adults.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Visionwest helped to provide housing, food support, financial mentoring, youth, counselling and home healthcare.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Community housing providers play an important role in providing and increasing the supply of social and affordable housing. Alongside this provision, the wrap around support is equally important to ensure whanau can get the support they need as they look at their goals for their future and the future of their children,” said Woolley.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Eight ground-floor apartments were designed for accessible living and reserved for kaumatua and older residents, and those with disabilities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Woolley said when people had secure housing, they started to thrive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“We’ve learnt over many years that permanent housing with the right supports is transformational in giving wh\u0101nau the stability and confidence they need to build hope for the future,” she said.rnz<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Residents of a new social housing development in Auckland’s Glen Eden will be able to book and drive two electric cars as part of a trial to reduce their transport costs. Visionwest has built 24 apartments on land near the local baptist church that founded the organisation, and people who are on the Ministry of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18723,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18721\/revisions\/18723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}