New housing development in Wairoa welcomes it's first tenants just before Christmas

Iwi trust Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa opened the first houses in its Te Rauā residential development on Monday in the Hawke's Bay town.

It's hoped the new development will help alleviate the shortage of affordable rentals in Wairoa after the devastating impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle and the subsequent flood events in June.

Te Rauā was opened on Monday by local MPs Cushla Tangaere-Manuel and Katie Nimon.

Tātau Tātau chief executive Lewis Ratapu said it was great to have many of the local kaumātua at the opening.

"Great day for our first tennant who was Uncle Blighty or Walter Wilson, who was one of the original Treaty of Waitangi claimants from 30 years ago.

"So he's probably the only one left of the original claimants, a lot of our other pakeke of that age have passed on, so it was great for him to see the fruition of all his hard efforts... and then to be one of our first tennants in one of our one bedroom kaumātua homes was great."

The Kitchener St development will feature 43 new homes, including 30 larger whānau homes built on-site and 13 transportable kaumātua-sized homes.

The total land site is just under three hectares and in the middle of the development is the kaumātua precinct 'Tokotoko o te rangi.'

The building, which is still in the design stage, is a 12 room living complex which gives each kaumātua their own room, ensuite and shared kitchen - there will be a live-in housekeeper.

Surrounding that are three and four bedroom family homes. The development is all about intergenerational living, Ratapu said.

The first two kaumātua houses were blessed and opened on Monday, with others to open later this week and in the new year, he said.

There is still a dire need for housing in Wairoa, with Tātau Tātau estimating about 300 hundred homes are needed to meet the demand.

The majority of interest in Te Rauā coming from whānau who are living with other whānau, Ratapu said.

"A lot of the need at the moment are for families, we've got some that were displaced since the June floods and have been living out of town that want to come back to Wairoa."

Now that the first kaumātua has moved in Tātau Tātau are starting to see a lot more interest in the development, Ratapu said.

"We've got very resilient people so even despite the June floods when we were still cleaning up a lot of the mud a lot of the silt from Cyclone Gabrielle... the whānau [are] still very staunch about staying here in the rohe [and] living on their whenua."

Ratapu said Wairoa is still vulnerable to flooding and there is a lot of anxiety among the community every time there is heavy rain.

"Definitely a lot of anxiety, a lot of people staying home now... when it tends to get heavy rain people just tend to stick close to home."