Vacant Crown land in Auckland will be turned into a 51-home development to provide transitional housing for families before they move into permanent accommodation.

The 1.6ha site at Luke St, Otahuhu, has been earmarked by its owner the Ministry of Education for a future school, but in the meantime will be developed into 27 two-bedroom, seven three-bedroom and 17 four-bedroom homes for families on the social housing register.

Te Ururoa Flavell will be speaking at the conference in Tauranga this afternoon.

Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett made the announcement during her keynote speech to the National Maori Housing Conference in Tauranga this morning, saying the development is just one of many new developments to come as the Government ramps up the housing supply in Auckland.

'The Ministry of Education will not be using this site for several years so has leased it to Housing New Zealand. This is an excellent use of the Crown's land resources in Auckland to address the need for more emergency and temporary housing for vulnerable families.

'The resource consent was lodged this week and work will begin shortly on a fast ‘stick-build' – that is, traditional building. But the homes will be built so that they can be easily moved later. We expect that tenants will be able to move in by the end of February next year. A community provider will be contracted to manage the site and offer wraparound services to tenants.

'This development is just one part of our Government's comprehensive housing plan. Our focus is on delivering safe, warm, permanent housing but we are responding to the need for short-term accommodation for people in unexpected, difficult circumstances,” says Paula.

'Over the coming months, we will deliver even more emergency and medium-term housing places over and above the more than 3000 places a year funded in the Budget.”

Māori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell, who will be speaking at the conference in Tauranga this afternoon, says tangible results are starting to show from the Māori Housing Network effort launched just under 12 months ago.

'Hundreds of homes have been repaired and more affordable homes are being built under this effort and while this alone isn't going to fix all the housing problems Māori face, it's a good start.”

The Māori Housing Network is managed by Te Puni Kōkiri and supports Māori housing projects with a focus on improving the quality of housing, particularly through community based repair projects, building the capability and capacity of Māori organisations involved in housing, and increasing the supply of affordable homes.

In its first year, the Māori Housing Network has funded:

· The repair of 243 whānau homes

· The building of 42 affordable housing units

· 32 capability projects

· 11 projects for ground support workers

· 35 papakāinga workshops

· 116 infrastructure projects to allow for the building of new homes

· 5 emergency housing projects

· 7 housing workshops

· 79 whānau to access housing facilitation support

'Māori housing issues are intergenerational and complex so that's why we are taking a Whānau Ora centred approach for whānau in need.”

While Te Ururoa is not responsible for the Kāinga Whenua, another housing scheme for Māori which comes under Housing New Zealand, he has asked officials for advice on what changes could be made to improve it. "We want this scheme to work for Māori - we want more Māori living in their own homes on their ancestral land. But we're mindful that changes alone to this scheme may not necessarily produce more houses for Māori as there are other factors at play such as income levels, qualifications and employment of the borrowers."