RESIDENTS CONSIDER LEGAL ACTION OVER PUBLIC HOMES

By CHRIS HARROWELL

More than 640 people have signed a petition calling for a halt to a plan to build dozens of new public housing places in an east Auckland community.

Officials from Kainga Ora recently fronted a heated public meeting in Botany to discuss the agency’s development in Huntington Park.

The Times has been told by people who attended the meeting that irate residents shouted at the officials, who threatened to leave if people didn’t calm down.

Huntington Park Residents and Ratepayers Association chairman Brian Brown has written to Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods, the Howick ward’s two councillors, and Howick Local Board about the group’s opposition to the project.

He told the Times residents are forming an action group to oppose the development.

“We’re looking at getting legal action as well.

“The main problem is nobody knew anything about it until March, after ground had been broken, and even then they [Kainga Ora] just told the bordering houses and it didn’t go any wider than that.”

Brown says residents would still have concerns if the agency had communicated earlier in the process.

“We’re worried about extra traffic and much more parking. That’s one of the main issues.

“Also, the people next door are basically a metre away from the fence so that’s probably six hours a day less sunlight they’ll get.”

He says residents who voiced their opposition at the public meeting in April were “basically told we’re bigoted against poor people” by the Kainga Ora officials.

The officials said the public housing wouldn’t affect the values of residents’ homes and made statements Brown believes were contradictory.

“They said they choose an area based on whether there are local schools, but they also said there’s no primary school within walking distance,” he says.

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