Kāinga Ora called for "accelerated timeframes" to prioritise homes where they were needed in its written response to the Dunedin City Council’s draft development strategy.
The council has blamed the proposed pace of development on funding limitations imposed by Three Waters pipe upgrades.
Kāinga Ora said this presented "a significant challenge to delivering public housing" which it found concerning.
The plan, released earlier this year, had indicated that intensification of social housing in four "key areas" identified by the agency would not be possible in the short term because of the Three Waters expenditure.
The areas are Caversham, Mosgiel, Corstorphine and Brockville.
The plan said intensification of development in Mosgiel, Corstorphine and Brockville would not happen in the next decade.
It would take much longer still — more than 30 years, and possibly as long as 50 years — to intensify housing in Caversham to the level needed.
Caversham’s pipe upgrade is undetermined while the council-run programme South Dunedin Future devises a separate plan for the area which has a predicted increasingly watery future, because of climate change and a rising sea level.
The South Dunedin plan is due by 2026 and one of 16 options proposed is prevention of wastewater pipe overflows — a public health hazard that happens at the corner of Surrey St and Hillside Rd in Caversham.
Kāinga Ora also called for more detail in the development plan, including "staging and timing of the required infrastructure investment".
A significant number needed renewing and some experienced damp, the agency admitted in its response.
Figures given to the Otago Daily Times showed 85% of Kāinga Ora homes built before 1960 have not been retrofitted to improve them.
The council also provides social homes — 940 one-bed and two-bed units, largely for older people.
In a response to Kāinga Ora, council staff said the housing agency’s aspirations were "noted", but it was "unlikely that the long-term plan funding parameters will provide for any significant larger Three Waters work programme than what is proposed".
Kāinga Ora regional director Kerrie Young welcomed further input into the council plan.
"The infrastructure in the areas where we have a large number of homes is at capacity and in need of upgrading, to enable more homes to be built. This limits our ability to redevelop our existing housing stock across Dunedin."
A separate response to the council’s development plan was sent in by Summerset, which owns a retirement village in Wakari and is planning another in Mosgiel.
Summerset’s response said the council needed to "better recognise and provide for the challenge of aged care housing".
The council had "a lack of clear strategy to fund infrastructure to facilitate the long term growth areas" and should also better acknowledge the role of private developers in helping fund and bring forward infrastructure improvements.
Cr Jim O’Malley, who chairs the council’s infrastructure services committee, said he could not comment on the draft development plan until after its public hearings, which start next Wednesday.
However, he said funding to "get out the hole" of poor infrastructure must happen once Three Waters infrastructure modelling was completed later this year.
It was important the pipe problem was not "pushed to another council 10 or 15 years in the future with people in Surrey St still getting sewage in their backyards".
He urged central government to help South Dunedin, saying they just "come and look and leave but not with any particular engagement".
"A dollar spent now will save 10 in the future. If we wait until the last minute it will be very expensive."
