To be discussed by the Queenstown Lakes District Council at its meeting in Queenstown this week, the draft plan supercedes the Queenstown Lakes District Homes Strategy 2021, and was one of six priorities for the Grow Well Whaiora Partnership.
That included a working group comprising representatives from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Kainga Ora and the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust, funded by the council and Kainga Ora.
Included in the draft plan’s solutions to the present rental crisis was engaging with community and businesses in finding workforce and housing solutions, including, for example, "adopt a worker" schemes.
That was an initiative championed by Tourism Port Douglas Daintree, in Australia, which involved asking the Douglas community to adopt a worker for the busy season because of the rental crisis.
"By providing living arrangements for seasonal workers, businesses will be able to operate with full teams and provide full services," the draft plan says.
Other "key actions" to solve the immediate issue include the council, Kainga Ora, the housing trust and chambers of commerce investigating solutions which had worked nationally, and internationally, and see how they could be replicated in the Queenstown-Lakes; to facilitate a community group focused on local community solutions to housing; educate on the benefits of long-term rentals; and further investigate obstacles for landlords to rent out property as long-term accommodation.
The plan also outlined ways public-private partnerships could be further developed to deliver affordable housing — that included in the short term, within two years, to investigate how affordable homes could be delivered more efficiently and at a lower cost than at present, and look at the potential of the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Act to bring forward investment in infrastructure, including social infrastructure.
Other initiatives included investigating setting up a joint venture company to buy land and develop it for affordable housing, while partners were already working with iwi and the housing trust to look at opportunities to use vacant or under-utilised Crown land through the Land for Housing Programme in the district.
The draft plan also included investigating opportunities, within the next two years, where the Kainga Ora Land Programme could enable affordable housing choices, and for the housing trust to buy land for developments when the opportunity arose.
Subject to council agreement, it was proposed for the plan to open for community feedback from May 1 to June 9, along with targeted engagement with, for example, key developers and employers, community groups and Queenstown Business Chamber of Commerce networks.
