A PLACE TO CALL HOME
This is a joint project with the Christchurch Methodist Mission.
It’s a social housing development with a unique focus on holistic development.
This is different from other social housing projects because it was designed to do more than just provide rooves over heads. There is a full time Community Development Worker to understand and try to meet the needs of the families and the development as a whole. We hope the families will thrive here and the average length of their stay will be a good indication of how its going.
An important aspect to WFCT is the research component. If this housing model is successful- we want to be able to measure that success and advocate for more of its kind.
The dream is that the children within this community can just be children, blissfully unaware of the stresses of disadvantage.
THE GOAL:
To develop housing models to support families into affordable housing.
At the end of 2020 WFCT had built 4, three bedroom houses in the Halswell Commons subdivision for first home owners to purchase under the Trust’s First Home Buyer Initiative, through a shared equity scheme. Four families who, like so many, worked really hard to achieve their homeownership dreams but who came up against a toughening housing market are now proud homeowners, in warm, new, easily maintained homes in a great community with access to local high decile schools, playgrounds and bus routes.
Since these houses were built, it has only become harder to build and buy homes, so we are collaborating with other organisations to try to find new solutions for renters and buyers in the face of a housing crisis.