A $90 million housing fund promises to tackle the Bay of Plenty's housing crisis

Kā​inga Ora houses stand empty just down the road from an emergency hotel evicting tenants. A new investment fund could be the fix.

A $90 million housing fund launched in the Bay of Plenty promises to be a gamechanger for tackling the severe housing shortage in the region, and has ambitions to eventually list on the stock market.

But it won't be soon enough to help emergency housing tenants at an Ōpōtiki motel who have been told to leave, including a young mother of three children.

Roy Thompson highlights the case as an example of what he's seen in his travels around the region promoting the new Bay of Plenty Housing Equity Fund. While in Ōpōtiki he says he came across six new Kainga Ora homes that had been sitting empty since mid-December.

"We just need more urgency," he says. "It's very frustrating to see these extreme housing needs and at the same time seeing houses being finished and left empty, or being vacated and left empty, simply because there's just not enough urgency."

Kainga Ora says six four-bedroom homes were ready mid-December and as of this week one family has moved in, while three others will move in soon. It says it is in the process of matching the last two homes to suitable families.

The fund will make a huge difference by increasing the supply of affordable homes to buy or rent-long term, elder housing, housing on whenua Māori, crisis accommodation, public housing and supported accommodation for people with disabilities, he says.

Five community organisations - BayTrust, Trust Horizon, Rotorua Trust, TECT and Tauranga City Council - are pitching in a total of $45 million. The fund will match that, with borrowed capital, to take it to $90 million.

It aims to work with iwi, community housing providers, councils and others to get homes built to scale.

"There's a lot of people doing good things out there in the affordable housing space, but a lot of organisations don't have sufficient capital to get their housing projects off the ground," says Thompson.

"This fund is all about addressing that problem by taking partnerships with community-based housing organisations to help them get things done, really."

Chief executive of Bay Trust Alastair Rhodes, who played a key role in setting it up, wants to see it grow to $500 million within five years by attracting more investors.

Managed by Thompson's New Ground Capital and Brightlight Impact Advisory, the fund is actively looking to form partnerships with wholesale investors, joint venture partners and lenders. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details