Building for community:
lessons from Te Pākau Maru

I recently came across the CHIA NSW 26/27 pre-budget submission that lays out in clear, evidenced terms what it actually takes to address a housing crisis. Not just build homes but fund the support that helps people keep them. Not just target the big cities, but direct funding to regional communities too. And not just one-off investment, but sustained, long-term committment.

What they’re calling for

Their case rests on three things:

• Recurrent capital funding to grow social and affordable housing supply at scale

• Energy upgrades for the existing social housing stock (because warm, healthy homes matter)

• Wrap-around support funded alongside housing - because a roof without support isn't always enough

Reading it, I found myself asking what the equivalent conversation looks like here in Aotearoa.

We have community housing providers doing extraordinary mahi with limited and very uncertain funding. We have a growing number of people experiencing homelessness whose needs are complex and whose costs to the system - when left unsupported - are enormous. We have regional communities where housing pressure is acute and subsidy requirements are higher.

The NSW submission notes that every $1 invested in social and aOordable housing returns 
$1.30 in benefits. That's not a charityargument. That's a fiscal one.

I'm not the expert here. There are researchers, economics, advocates, and precious people 
with the lived experience who understand this far better than I do. But I keep coming back to one question: if NSW can name the number and make the case, what's stopping us from doing the s
ame here in Aotearoa?

And here's the bigger question I'd love to sit with you in for a moment - what could Aotearoa 
actually look like if we got this right? If community housing providers had the long-term funding certainty to plan and build at scale. If people moving into housing had the wrap-around support they needed to stay there.If regional towns had the rightsize and type of homes their communities desperately need. If the cycle of crisis, cost, and harm started to genuinely turn.

I think it's worth daring to imagine that. Because you can't advocate for a future you haven't 
let yourself picture yet.

And here's the bigger question I'd love to sit with you in for a moment - what could Aotearoa 
actually look like if we got this right?I f community housing providers had the long-term funding 
certainty to plan and build at scale. If people moving into housing had the wrap-around support they needed to stay there.If regional towns had the rightsize and type of homes their communities desperately need. If the cycle of crisis, cost, and harm started to genuinely turn.

What does that future look like to you?