Christopher Luxon is set to visit the flood-battered Hawke’s Bay community of Te Wairoa this weekend to assess damage from recent severe weather that ravaged the East Coast.
The visit is expected to give the community a chance to show the pirimia firsthand the devastation caused in recent weeks, as well as the on-going efforts to revive the district since Cyclone Gabrielle last year.
Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa Chief Executive Lewis Ratapu says the visit is long overdue.
“I think there is probably some expectations that there will be an announcement from the Prime Minister around support for the rohe.
“I don’t think we’ve seen the level of support that we got after Cyclone Gabrielle from the previous government. There’s some expectations of Christopher Luxon and his coalition government.”
More than 400 properties in Te Wairoa were damaged in last week’s flood, with 116 of those homes taking substantial damage.
Ratapu says the bills keep piling on.
“The immediate concern from whānau is about what are they going to do in terms of just being able to get the houses dry, move back in, and keep warm for the winter.
“The bills are still coming in regardless of whether you’re in the house. So how are we going to pay for the extra power it’s going to take to dry the house out.
“We need some financial relief just to help out.”
Even with its full housing supply, Te Wairoa is experiencing a housing shortage, and Ratapu mentions the need for additional housing is in great need.
He says proposals have been put to the government to allocate 45 temporary housing solutions as well as an additional 30 social homes.
In addition to the need for homes, Ratapu says safer and more reliable infrastructure is also desperately needed.
“A lot of the key infrastructure projects, along the Wairoa and Napier road in particular have been taken off and put into a larger pool of regional infrastructure roading fund, which means Wairoa is just going to have to bid with the rest of the districts in terms of it’s importance of all the roads in the region.”
Ratapu is hopeful announcements will be made to help the district that has seen so many hardships in recent months.
“We are hoping to get some more pūtea to continue particularly with the council around their infrastructure, rubbish removal. We will be expecting an announcement for temporary accommodation for Iwi.
“We’ve been making our Mahia Motor Camp available for whānau whilst we’ve been trying to fix infrastructure there. And of course the social homes that we’ve put on the table, 30 of those, so we hope to hear something about permanent housing from this government as well.”