Te Puni Kōkiri has a vision of thriving whānau. When whānau thrive, so do their communities, hapū, iwi and all of Aotearoa.
One of our key focus areas is working to ensure whānau have access to good housing and have opportunities for home ownership and investment –because enabling access to more affordable, healthy, and secure homes can lead to better outcomes for whānau.
As part of this mahi on housing, we work to address systemic barriers to developing housing on Māori freehold land and other types of whenua Māori. For many years, we have supported the development of papakāinga through funding programmes like the Māori Housing Network and Whai Kāinga Whai Oranga. Through this mahi, our kaimahi have seen the way planning rules and the resource consent process can add unnecessary time and cost to what is already a long and challenging journey for whānau to develop papakāinga. An analysis completed in 2016 by Te Matapihi, the national representative body for Māori housing, also found some district plans did not enable papakāinga developments.
