CHA Member Bulletin - 22 July 2011
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From David's Desk
Kia ora tatou
Latest meetings
This week the CHA Council gathered in Wellington on Tuesday for a face to face meeting, followed by an opportunity in the afternoon to meet with Housing Minister Phil Heatley.
Additionally CHA’s Māori Caucus and 2010 National Maori Housing Conference delegates are meeting today in Auckland to further follow up activity based on the conference recommendations.
CHA Council meeting agendas are heavily focused still on coming to grips with the new policy settings for Government support of social and community housing, as well as setting a direction for the future of CHA itself, based on vital new services such as a Community Housing Sector Quality Assurance service.
Agendas and Minutes of Council meetings areSave changes available to all financial members of CHA on request to director@communityhousing.org.nz
LGNZ Conference
Since CHA’s last member bulletin (sent on 30 June) one of our major activities has been to promote community housing to local body politicians and staff through having a stand at the Local Government New Zealand conference in Wellington on 11-12 July.
A big thank you to Alison Cadman of Wellington Housing Trust and Jan Logie of the NZ Centre for Sustainable Cities for assisting us at the stand, which attracted a steady stream of councillors seeking more information about community housing. We made a large number of new contacts which is helping us to create a new Local Government & Community Housing ‘workstream’ as a result. We will be seeking input to this workstream as it develops during the rest of the year.
Have you re-joined CHA yet?
I’ve spoken to a few members who have their membership form we sent out on the desk beside them. Please remember to rejoin for the 2011-2012 year as soon as practicable, and if you have any questions about this process please let me know.
If you know of organisations who could be interested in joining CHA please encourage them to visit our JOIN NOW webpage – http://communityhousing.org.nz/?page_id=2558
Sincerely, David McCartney
Executive Officer
Email: director@communityhousing.org.nz
Changes in Government funding for social (& community) housing
We are aware that since 1 July all former recipients of funding under the Housing Innovation Fund (HIF) including Māori Demonstration Partnership fund, have been sent a letter by Housing New Zealand CEO Lesley McTurk that draws a close to HNZC’s involvement in any new funding. If you have not had a letter from HNZC please let us know.
New Government funding for social housing – inclusive of community housing as we know it - will now be a primary responsibility of the Social Housing Unit being set up within the Department of Building and Housing (DBH), with HNZC still handling legacy administrative enquiries about the HIF “until at least the end of this year”.
Final HIF allocations are still being made with the latest round of Government funding of $2.6M being announced last Friday 15 July. The recipients are: Pukaki Ahu Whenua Trust ($1.54M), Nga Hau e Wha ($550,000) and Selwyn Foundation ($500,000). For the full announcement see www.beehive.govt.nz
Acting in the best interests of the sector, one of CHA’s key priorities over the remainder of the year is to ensure we establish a solid working relationship with the Department of Building and Housing and the new Social Housing Unit.
All community housing organisations should note that a public notification has been made by the new Social Housing Unit that there will be a funding round in 2011 under the new era, and that the funding criteria will be announced at a later date. At the same time the Unit will be developing a longer term investment strategy for larger scale social housing projects.
Register your interest on the Social Housing Unit website – Do it now!
In this early phase there is an opportunity for all organisations to directly register your interest on the Social Housing Unit website at www.shu.govt.nz/register-your-interest/
We encourage ALL members and supporters of Community Housing Aotearoa to go to this registration page, to register and to tick the box that says ‘Send me news updates’.
It is in the best interests of the sector as a whole for as many different individuals and organisations as possible to sign up to receive updates direct to your inbox.
This will be a demonstration that people in the sector are aware of the changes, want to be on a mailing list and want to be involved. So, in other words, the more registrations of interest, the better.
CHA will of course continue to be a primary point of contact for sector-wide discussions and liaison with DBH and the Social Housing Unit. The Unit’s Terms of Reference are available on the Unit’s website. Or if you would prefer a pdf copy please email comms@communityhousing.org.nz
Housing Affordability Issues Paper
As mentioned in our last bulletin the Government’s newly established Productivity Commission has called for responses to its issues paper on Housing Affordability.
Initial submissions have to be made by Wednesday 3rd of August and the issues paper can be downloaded from www.productivity.govt.nz
If you would like to assist with CHA’s submission, or are working on your own and are happy to 'swap notes' please email us at comms@communityhousing.org.nz
Making room for some Poetry…
Today – Friday 22nd July – is New Zealand’s National Poetry day.
Under the rubric of our “Doorways to Community Housing” campaign, CHA’s poem for the day is the poem lent to us earlier in the year by leading NZ poet Jenny Bornholdt. Feel free to share it around, forward to a friend:
HOME
What you think
about. Where
you come from.
Leave from.
Home. Where
the heart beats
hardest. It
becomes a
small room
in your head.
You visit
often. They always
let you in.
CHA Website links
Have you missed past member bulletins - go to the Member Info tab to read past bulletins.
Note: We will be reviewing the content on the CHA website in August. Comments about how well the current content meets your needs and suggestions for improvements can be sent to comms@communityhousing.org.nz
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