Building hope: new houses in Whanganui
Rose Robinson writes:
On Tuesday, 22nd of October, 30 Anglican Centre staff took a hikoi up to Whanganui to meet with locals from Whanganui Parish and Praxis students at St Luke's Castlecliff. The group gathered to celebrate the near completion of the first two houses out of the Anglican Diocese Housing Programme prefabrication factory. The houses are the first two transportable, energy-efficient homes delivered from the factory onto church land. The group took time to pray and give thanks for the housing project, for the two new homes and for what God is doing in the local community and parish.
Whilst landscaping was underway out the back and plumbers were working on getting water connected out the front the group took time to walk through the houses. Chris Kirby, one of the Priests-in-charge at St Luke's Castlecliff spoke about how underutilised the sloping, scruffy section of land next to the Vicarage had been and how many people have expressed to him their surprise that these two spacious two-bedroom units could fit alongside the Vicarage. Nickie George from the Anglican Centre exclaimed how beautiful the houses looked, particularly the front view of the homes with the wooden cladding and how the spacious deck and lounge created a great living environment. Numerous people who had visited the houses during construction in the Featherston factory before they were shipped to site noted how much bigger they felt situated on the land.
People going through the houses expressed the desire that they would love to live in one. After a short time of prayer, the group gathered to enjoy pizzas prepared by Archbishop Justin and served out on platters in the car park at St Luke's. The sun was shining, basketball and conversation were shared.
The project is part of the Diocesan Housing Programme, and the blessing will be the second this year after the 8 homes in Taitā were blessed earlier this year. As an update on the Diocesan Housing Programme a short video was prepared for the recent Synod, watch here to see a fuller picture of the house build process and the journey behind the Housing Programme.
The Whanganui parish is looking forward to hosting a formal blessing of the units at 12.30pm on Sunday 10th of November. The blessing will follow on from the regular 10am of Sunday service at St Luke’s church and will include refreshments. All are welcome to join!
As part of the Diocesan Housing team, I (Rose) found it joyful to have people walking through the houses for the first time and felt stoked to be this close to having local tenants live in these excellent houses. Rental accommodation is usually older housing stock, which is so far below the standard of building code. These houses are built to above code standard meaning they will be such cosy, healthy, economical homes for tenants.
Rev. Jax Clark from Lyall Bay Community Church expressed the excitement she has for a future building project in Lyall Bay that a church team are currently exploring and how inspiring it was to see these units take shape on the empty land next to the Vicarage. She felt these homes sent a message: the opportunity for closer relational connection between church and community and secondly showing in visible way our care as a church in responding to the need for housing in Aotearoa.
Always good at remembering to take a photo on the day, Rev Paul Fletcher captured the vibe with a short video, saying “Excited to see how these homes, alongside supportive church crews, offer empowerment and genuine community to the folk who end up living here.”
