CHA News - Week of 13 to 17 December 2010
To: CHA supporter
Firstly, Season's Greetings and welcome to our new look for CHA News - just in time for Christmas!
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From David's Desk
Ngā mihi o te Kirihimete me te tau hou.
Well, here we are at the end of what has been an extremely eventful year for the community housing sector and on the cusp of an even bigger year in 2011.
Knowing how busy this time of year is I'll make my final message for 2010 brief.
Since our last members' email on 26 November the Government has released a very succinct announcement confirming Cabinet’s acceptance of key recommendations made by the Housing Shareholders Advisory Group (HSAG), and a strong intention to work more closely with non-government suppliers of affordable housing to improve supply. Read more in the update we added to the CHA website on the day of the announcement.
Hearing this news capped off a year that has seen community housing and Māori housing issues (see item below) move their way slowly but surely on to a higher level focus. We are now having closer engagement with the Department of Building and Housing and the CHA Council will be having an important meeting with DBH officials early in 2011.
This will all build very nicely to our CHA CONFERENCE - "Doorways to Community Housing" - in West Auckland on 22-23 March 2011. Having declared that week of 21-25 March as an awareness week for Community Housing we will soon start to send out a specific bulletin covering the Conference build-up and updates about the "Doorways" awareness campaign.
I couldn't let the year pass without a grateful acknowledgement out to the CHA Council for their dedicated leadership and to all of CHA's members, supporters and friends.
All of you have made the work that myself and my part-time colleagues Jane and Stephen do a pleasure and we look forward to extending our services and advocacy on your behalf even further in the future.
Kia kaha! David
director@communityhousing.org.nz
Māori housing panui
- Hui: At the beginning of this month members of the Māori caucus of CHA's Council and nominated delegates from the National Māori Housing Conference (held in Rotorua in March 2010) met together in Auckland to shape some planning for activities in 2011 under the initial banner of 'Kainga Whanau Ora'. The group will next reconvene in February.
- Statement on indigenous rights: CHA has been informed that on 30 November to 3 December 2010 representatives from National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) and Indigenous people’s organisations from 15 countries in the Asia-Pacific region met at a workshop Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) to discuss their role in the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (the Declaration). To read the statement on indigenous rights that was adopted on the last day of the workshop visit the Human Rights Commission website.
Noted!
- Community Energy Network (formerly Energy Efficiency Community Network) was officially launched by the Minister of the Community and Voluntary Sector Hon. Tariana Turia in Wellington last Wednesday 15 December, in tandem with the launch of the Network’s new website at www.communityenergy.co.nz. Thank you to Sally Blackwell, Executive officer of the Network for keeping CHA in the loop.
- Right to housing. The Human Rights Commission has now released its report card on the state of human rights in New Zealand. CHA's submission earlier in the year to the chapter titled Right to housing/ Tika ki te whai whare rawaka, was gratefully received at the time; and on a quick review several of the points we raised have been taken up. For a Word copy of the final chapter please email comms@communityhousing.org.nz
News gathering for 2011
- PLEASE send CHA your 'news'. With our new easier to work with format of this e-newsletter we will be having a regular heading for "member news" every fortnight. To make for an interesting and worthwhile read we need to markedly increase our two-way contact with you, SO.... if you have any news you'd like to share across the CHA mailing list please just hit reply to this email and let us know about your latest success, your latest project, your newest staff member, anything and everything!
- DOORWAYS getting ready to open. In addition CHA will definitely be putting together an 8-page quarterly publication in early 2011 for the purposes of promoting awareness of community housing and showcasing the diversity and achievements of CHA members. The gathering of content is well underway with CHA's 'roving reporter' Stephen Olsen in Nelson next week to put a story together about Abbeyfield. Our title for the publication is "Doorways".
- Wellington Housing Trust. For an excellent example of a housing trust newsletter, we recommend a visit to the news page on Wellington Housing Trust website to check out their December 2010 newsletter.
NEXT CHA NEWS
- Our plan for this regular e-message is to alternate a CHA NEWS with updates about next year's awareness raising campaign.
- Meanwhile keep an eye out for an update about our CHA Conference happening 22-23 March 2011, due to arrive in your inbox soon.
Keep well - Noho ora mai
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