December 03, 2017
Maori a priority in Kiwibuild
Housing Minister Phil Twyford would like to see the Kiwibuild policy deliver the kind of levels of Maori home ownership as Maori Affairs housing achieved in the past.
Programmes that provided below market interest loans to Maori and Pasifika families and used home building to train Maori tradespeople ended with the closure of the Department of Maori Affairs at the end of the 1980s.
Mr Twyford says the department put generations of Maori families into their first homes and provided a platform for them to build stronger families and stronger communities.
"Many of those benefits have been lost in the last 30 years so I want Kiwibuild to draw on that inspiration to get Maori home ownership back on the rails," he says.
He’s working with Maori Development Minister Nanaia Mahuta on ways to add a Maori dimension to Kiwibuild which aims to build 100,000 houses over the next 10 years and also work with iwi on housing.
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