Budget 2023: Sustained investment and delivery in the housing system

Maintaining momentum in public housing delivery 

Public housing is a vital part of our social support system. The Government has committed to supplying an extra 3,000 new public homes by June 2025. To achieve this the Government is providing $465 million operating funding and $3.1 billion capital for Kāinga Ora Crown debt to construct these places.

This investment is in addition to the 18,000 public and transitional homes currently being built, in the pipeline for delivery or have already been delivered.

This Budget also provides Kāinga Ora and Tāmaki Regeneration Company with financing to continue the existing programmes of delivery ($7.2 billion over 3 years) and additional operating funding of $707 million (over two years from 2024) to cover costs within the Public Housing portfolio.

Find out more about how we are working to increase public housing.

Supporting people in motels used as transitional housing

Contracting motels for transitional housing was approved as a temporary solution to respond to the growing number of people on the housing register and as part of the COVID-19 response, to support people sleeping rough or in unsuitable accommodation.

While the Government is moving away from using motels as transitional housing, there continues to be a need for them in some circumstances.

The Government has provided $176 million to extend funding for over 1,300 motel places to continue to be used as transitional housing until 30 June 2025. This funding is vital for the vulnerable people and whānau who stay in these places. It will continue to provide them with the accommodation and support services they need until longer-term housing is available.

Find out more about how Transitional Housing supports people.

Responding to homelessness

The Aotearoa Homelessness Action Plan (HAP) sets out a vision that homelessness is rare, brief and non-reoccurring. Budget 2023 gives the Homelessness Action Plan (HAP) a boost of $30m funding for continued and increased delivery of two key initiatives aimed at prevention and regional approaches to homelessness.

The initiatives are the Local Innovation and Partnership Fund (LIPF) and Rangatahi/Youth Transitional Housing. These include:

• Extending the funding for the Local Innovation Partnerships project This initiative provides $6.15m for the ongoing delivery, and upscaling (where possible) of promising existing Local Innovation and Partnership Fund projects.
• Providing more transitional housing for rangatahi/youth. This initiative provides $24m over four years to invest in approximately 80 to 90 additional secure, safe, and stable accommodation places for vulnerable young people. The funding includes providing comprehensive support services for rangatahi at risk of or experiencing homelessness.

Find out more about the Aotearoa New Zealand Homelessness Action Plan 2020-2023.

Increasing Māori Housing Supply, Capability Building and Repairs

Budget 2023 provides further investment to continue the momentum achieved so far by the Whai Kāinga Whai Oranga programme, with an additional investment of $150 million. $140 million is being invested to provide an additional 322 homes and $10 million is provided for building the capability for the Māori housing provider sector.  A further $50 million will be delivered through Vote Māori Development.  

Find out more about the Whai Kāinga Whai Oranga programme.

Helping Māori communities recover from the North Island weather events

Cyclone Gabrielle and the North Island Weather Events have had a significant impact on whānau Māori, displacing many of them from their homes in our hardest hit regions - Napier-Hastings, Tairāwhiti, Wairoa and Te Tai Tokerau.

To support the recovery of these communities, an additional $70m is going towards delivering 400 relocatable cabins (estimated at 100 each region) to assist those whānau displaced from their home. This investment will allow Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga – Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, to partner with iwi and Māori housing providers to respond to immediate housing needs in the affected regions.