The Tamaki Regeneration Company says it has found a home back in Glen Innes for a student and family evicted to make way for a housing development - and others are welcome to return too.
Tamaki College students Photo: RNZ
First Up revealed in May that a number of students from Auckland's Tamaki College had been forced from their state homes. The students said they were paying up to $40 a week in transport costs to get to Tamaki College from their new homes in South Auckland.
Since the students shared their stories, figures released to First Up under the Official Information Act showed at least 182 tenants and their families were evicted by Housing New Zealand between 2012 and 2016. Many households were relocated within the community, but about 60 moved out.
In 2016 the Tamaki Regeneration Company (TRC) took over from Housing New Zealand managing the transition of 2800 state houses to 7500 state, affordable and private market homes.
Chief executive John Holyoake said when TRC took over it wasn't aware how many families had been affected by relocation.
"It was definitely a challenging time. There weren't enough houses available in the area at that stage because the development hadn't even started.
"We didn't have the numbers of how many people had needed to move out of the area."
Mr Holyoake said he had been surprised to hear the stories from the Tamaki College students.
"We knew that people moved out but we thought people had made the choices to do that.
"But we were also pleased that the story came out because it gave us the opportunity to go 'Well, this isn't right. What can we do to try and fix this for those families?'.
Housing in Tamaki, Glen Innes Photo: indira stewart/RNZ
Mr Holyoake said a TRC team visited Tamaki College immediately after hearing the students' stories on RNZ.
"We reached out to Soana, the principal of the school, and asked if we could come and talk. Our team went down and talked to the school and some of those students to find out what was going on.
"I really respect the fact that these kids were brave enough to stand up and say 'Hey look, this doesn't feel right to us'."
Mr Holyoake said he hoped the students' encounter with TRC was positive.
"For one, it's good to speak up when something's not right but also they see that we listened and were willing to do something to help them."
Some families had settled in their new communities by the time the company met with them and didn't want to return.
But one student and her family did, and TRC has found them a home in Tamaki.
"We'll do that for anyone else who wants to reach out to us," Mr Holyoake said.
"Anyone that you had in that story that's in the same situation that generally has had an experience that wasn't good for them and they want to come back to Tamaki. We'd love to talk to them."
At least 182 tenants and their families were evicted from their state homes by Housing New Zealand between 2012 and 2016 to make way for a housing development. Photo: RNZ
Of the 182 tenants and their families who were evicted from their homes under Housing New Zealand, at least 42 chose to move out of the suburb or into private rentals, while at least 12 households wanted to say but were forced out.
Housing New Zealand said in some cases there wasn't enough housing available, or the housing wasn't adequate for people's needs.
The department said the figures provided might not be the total relocations during the period they were in charge, so the numbers could be higher.
It met some relocation costs, but not the cost of transport for children who wanted to stay at their Tamaki school.
Tāmaki MP Simon O'Connor said some financial help should have been available for students like Sela and Lu who travelled across Auckland to school for several years.
Mr Holyoake said a discussion on financial compensation should happen, but TRC wouldn't be providing funding.
"We made a promise to the community when we took over in 2016 that no families would be forced to move out and we've 100 percent kept that promise. We're offering to welcome people back into the community who had a bad experience.
"I guess the good thing for us is that we've learnt from what happened previously before we took over and we've got positive things in place to create a better experience for the families."
