Amidst the debate and rancour over who is responsible for Queenstown's housing shortage and how it should be tackled, one non-profit organisation chips away at the challenging task of helping the resort's low-income families into home ownership. Guy Williams reports.
If there's any doubt as to whether Queenstown is in the grip of a housing crisis, consider the 1100 responses to a survey of the resort's renters this year.
The results of the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust's third major rent survey are expected to be made public at the end of the month.
But last month trust chairman David Cole gave a sneak preview of survey responses while addressing district plan review commissioners.
He read comments from people lamenting the fact they could no longer afford to live in the town where they were raised.
Small-business owners complained they could not keep staff because of the lack of affordable housing, while a family living in a Lakeview cabin wondered where they would go when it was removed.
Trust executive officer Julie Scott says it was overwhelmed by the response.
"It highlights the crisis we're seeing, and they really felt like it was an opportunity to have their say.''
But all is not bleak for the trust, despite it being a central player in the resort's worst housing crisis since an invasion of gold miners shattered the serenity of William Rees' Queenstown Bay homestead in 1862.
After a bumpy start, the Queenstown Lakes District Council's special housing accord with the Government is proving to be something of a shot in the trust's arm.
Councillors blithely signed off on the district's first special housing area (SHA), Bridesdale Farm, without requiring an affordable housing contribution from the developer.
Ms Scott says that prompted an amendment of the council's SHA lead policy, and since then the council has been "staunch'' in its support for the trust in squeezing contributions out of developers.
SHAs are expected to be a fruitful source of affordable housing in the next couple of years.
So far the trust has reached agreements with the developers of SHAs proposed for Shotover Country, Arthurs Point, Onslow Rd and an Arrowtown retirement village.
It is also in talks with the Sanderson Group about its proposal for a fast-tracked retirement complex off Ladies Mile.
If the various projects go ahead as expected, they could generate 50 more affordable homes in the next two years, she says.
The trust is also eyeing an affordable housing development on council land at Lakeview, the prime hillside site overlooking Queenstown Bay earmarked as a town centre extension.
The trust completed an eight-home affordable housing development in Arrowtown's Suffolk St in January, and this week announced its biggest development to date - 44 properties in Shotover Country - will be completed by the end of the year.
Its previous biggest affordable housing project, a 27-lot project in nearby Lake Hayes Estate, was completed in 2013.
The trust may be on something of a roll, but it comes on the back of years of swimming against the tide.
During his submission to district plan commissioners last month, Mr Cole urged them to approve the inclusion of council-owned land in Jopp St, Arrowtown, inside the township's urban growth boundary.
The trust wants to build 25 affordable homes on the 3.6ha site for low-income families.
It has had its eye on the site for years, but been stymied by opposition from neighbours.
The trust's Suffolk St development also drew opposition of the Nimby (Not In My Backyard) variety.
When the trust held a public meeting in the township in 2013 to show its plans for the project, some residents complained the site was too valuable and "high profile''.
The ill-tempered meeting produced comments like "public housing needs to be under the power lines'' while others expressed concerns renters would not tend their gardens.
Some at the meeting thought the trust was going to "build a ghetto'', Ms Scott says.
Since the completion of the homes, she has not received a single negative comment.
Meanwhile, the trust is always thinking bigger for its next development.
"We would like to do 50 to 100 houses; we want to do something significant to alleviate this issue.''
With the council now fully onside, it can focus on extracting as much value from developers as possible.
"If they're getting a gain from their land being rezoned from rural to residential, then some of that should go back to the community.
"And that comes to us, and enables us to assist more people.''
"The market's going through a boom at the moment and there's a housing crisis, but we've got good support behind us and we'll keep doing what we're doing.''
Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust
• Provides affordable housing for low-income households.
• Set up by the Queenstown Lakes District Council in 2007.
• Is a non-profit organisation governed by five trustees.
• Shares ownership of 48 properties with the goal of the household becoming the independent owner over time.
• Owns and manages 13 rental properties.
• Funded by government grants (about $5.5million in the trust's nine-year history), gifts of land from the council or developers, bank loans for specific affordable housing developments and $50,000 annual council funding.
