Frustration as downtown Kāinga Ora site sits empty
The on-again off-again saga of an empty Kāinga Ora site on Examiner St has frustrated Nelson MP Rachel Boyack, who says the city desperately needs more social housing while the site sits empty.
Boyack visited the section with Labour’s spokesperson for housing Kieran McAnulty last week.
Originally home to pensioner housing owned by the Nelson City Council, the site was purchased by Kāinga Ora in 2021 when the council sold off its social housing portfolio on the understanding that it would be redeveloped.
Since the sale, 10 run-down pensioner units have been removed from the site, while Kāinga Ora worked on plans to build up to 36 units across two buildings in a three-storey complex.
In 2024, the social housing provider announced that work on the site was paused while the agency looked at its finances.
In June last year, Kāinga Ora confirmed that the now 14-unit Examiner St complex was one of four Nelson housing projects that would not proceed under its “financial reset”.
Following that decision, Boyack wrote to Minister of Housing Chris Bishop calling for the Government to step in and develop the section.
Kāinga Ora then reopened the land for a review and then subsequently came back with the same decision, which was “to do nothing”, Boyack said.
“We desperately need more social housing in Nelson, and we’ve got this lovely empty site in the middle of the city. It’s not good enough,” she said.
“My view is they either just need to get on and build some houses on it, or maybe make the land available to one of our amazing community housing providers that could get on and build some houses.”
McAnulty said to see the site sitting empty was “incredibly frustrating”. He said that having been all around the country talking with frontline housing providers, he was yet to go to a region where homelessness hadn’t increased under the current Government.
Homeless people he had spoken to at the Male Room could have been housed had the project gone ahead and the Government not instructed Kāinga Ora not to build additional houses, he said.
Boyack said it was disappointing that after advocacy from herself and Nelson mayor Nick Smith the Government had still come back with a ‘no’.
Kāinga Ora Nelson, Marlborough and West Coast acting regional director Gabrielle Thorpe said the agency reviewed plans for the Examiner St site to see whether there was a cost-effective redevelopment option earlier this year.
However, Thorpe said it was not currently financially viable to deliver new homes on the site.
She said it was important that the state housing provider made “prudent investment decisions that deliver best value for money”.
“While we have no immediate plans to build on the site, we are holding on to it for potential future development and renewal of our housing stock.”
Kāinga Ora recognised the need for housing in Nelson and was planning to build 42 new homes in the city by the end of June 2027, she said.
National Party candidate for Nelson Blair Cameron said “exciting” social housing developments were ongoing, such as a large investment with the Salvation Army to deliver 80 homes on three different sites.
“If you talk to some of our local social housing experts, they’ll tell you that yes, there is a huge need for social housing, but actually we do have a good amount of social housing coming on board, which is a good thing, and there hasn’t been any sort of backtracking or slowdown at all.”
As to whether the section could be built on by a community housing provider, Cameron said he was open to whatever Kāinga Ora was operationally able to get across.
Kāinga Ora got into a “huge” amount of debt under the previous government, he said, so it had been important to bring back stronger oversight of the agency and ensure that they were delivering value for money.
Cameron said he was also excited about the Maitahi and Oakland developments, which may deliver more than 1000 homes for the city, and would reduce pressure on rent, housing supply and the cost of new housing.
Housing affordability was an issue that often arose when he spoke with young families looking to buy their first home, who commented they were finding housing expensive in the region compared with other parts of the country, he said.
It was also an issue that employers raised, as they wanted to attract the most talented staff, and housing affordability was one of the factors prospective employees considered.
“I always think that delivering more affordable housing is actually a way to strengthen our local economy as well,” Cameron said.
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