Māori Communities Lead Innovative Ways of Financing Housing on Ancestral Lands
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The Conversation
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New Zealand’s housing crisis disproportionately affects Māori in rural areas where healthy homes are in short supply and collective land ownership presents a challenge to banks. Governments have been grappling with this issue. The previous Labour-led government committed more than NZ$730 million to Māori-led housing solutions, and an announcement this week by the current coalition government saw a $200 million investment into affordable rentals. But Whare Ora, a community-run housing initiative in Te Tairāwhiti (East Coast), shows that innovative approaches to home ownership can be found within communities. Since 2020, Whare Ora has developed a social enterprise model, focused on producing healthy, affordable and transportable whare (houses) for local communities. Run by the charitable company Hikurangi Enterprises, Whare Ora has now supplied more than 80 homes for local whānau. This project is directly addressing regional housing deprivation and the finance barriers for building on Māori land under multiple ownership. This holds particular potential for Indigenous housing.
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The Conversation. February 5, 2025. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/maori-communities-lead-innovative-ways-of-financing-housing-on-ancestral-lands-247179
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