Strategy to promote housing solutions for Far North

Finding a safe, healthy and affordable place to call home is becoming increasingly difficult for many people in the Far North. He Kāinga Mana, the council’s new housing strategy, sets out how the council will work with iwi, hapū, communities, housing providers and other partners to improve housing outcomes across the district.

Te Hiku o te Ika is home to diverse communities spread across more than 40 towns, settlements and rural areas. Each community has different housing needs, influenced by population changes, local pressures and climate risks. The strategy takes a place-based approach to help find solutions that work for different communities.

There is already good work happening across the Far North to improve housing outcomes. The strategy builds on this work by using the council’s planning, infrastructure, consenting, information and advocacy roles to remove barriers, bring the right people together and help housing projects move forward.

The strategy is organised around five interconnected focus areas:

• Manawatōpū — collaboration and coordination: bringing partners together, clarifying responsibilities, improving housing information and coordinating delivery.
• Kaitiakitanga — sustainability and resilience: supporting warm, energy-efficient homes and guiding growth towards safer locations, with infrastructure and housing designed for a changing climate.
• Whanaungatanga — connection, place and belonging: taking a place-based approach and enabling housing choices that support connection to whānau, whenua, services and opportunity.
• Tū Tangata — affordability and housing choice across the continuum: enabling a broader range of housing types and tenures across the housing continuum and reducing unnecessary barriers to delivery.
• Mana Tangata — dignity, wellbeing and housing quality: improving knowledge of housing conditions and supporting practical, partner-led responses that make homes warmer, drier, safer and healthier.

He Kāinga Mana is about turning shared ambition into coordinated action. The strategy is available to view here, alongside the council's other strategies here.