The Mayor of Thames-Coromandel says their town is facing a housing shortage that needs to be addressed immediately. Sandra Goudie says she's reached out to local iwi to partner with them to build affordable housing.
Goudie means business about helping her town she says has a housing crisis.
“We're desperate for the housing,” she said.
“We've got a housing shortage just like everybody else. Rental shortage, just like everybody else. So we need to get something cracking as soon as we can.”
This council land next to the local Pārāwai Primary School has been offered to Ngāti Maru in a partnership proposal to build much-needed homes.
“The only way you can have affordable housing is through a mechanism where there is no market competition so that it just constantly rolls over. However, I wouldn't want to put constraints on what Ngāti Maru might want to do in terms of housing.”
Ngāti Maru is one of 12 iwi of the Hauraki Collective whose treaty claim they hoped to sign-off last month, was put on hold.
Tauranga Moana tribes are contesting Hauraki's cross-claim interests in their area, and the government has instructed the tribes to follow a Tikanga Māori process to resolve matters, as requested by Tauranga Moana at Parliament.
“We need them to have their treaty settlements signed off so that we can all move forward and unfortunately those have stalled yet again so it's a bit disappointing for us. We just want to get on with things.”
Ngāti Maru Manager David Taipari says they are waiting on more information from the Council.