After putting up with overflowing spouting and a leaky roof for eight years, a Rotorua homeowner got much-needed repairs through Habitat’s Home Repair Programme.
Student Rachel* said she previously couldn’t afford to get the repairs made – “I had just never been able to come up with the money.”
Her home’s obsolete spouting was constantly overflowing during heavy rains and had damaged the house. Habitat installed new spouting and drainage, helping to ensure the whanau has a healthy, safe and decent place to live.
Rachel said this was a relief for her and her whanau, and she could afford the no-interest repayments.
“For the first in a very long time, I didn’t have to worry about the house flooding, or any major problem during heavy rains and the gutters worked perfectly and did what they were supposed to do.”
“The people I dealt with were really helpful and felt like they were genuinely interested and wanted to help with the issue. It was great,” Rachel said.
Habitat’s home repair programme is supported by BNZ, and helps low income families back on track with their home maintenance. For affordable and interest free repayments to the homeowner over five years, Habitat carries out most urgent home repair projects, often relating to weathertightness, accessibility, heating and cooling and safety issues.
Rachel was directed to us by Sustainability Options’ 20 Degrees Programme, a collaborative healthy housing initiative dedicated to helping communities and whanau achieve warmer, drier and healthier homes. They have been working alongside Rachel on her whare since 2020. The home repair work on Rachel’s guttering was a collaborative effort between our team and 20 Degrees with Rachel regularly lending her own hands to progress the mahi.
Rachels said she would recommend that if people are able to apply for Habitat’s Home Repair Programme, “they should really do it. It is an amazing thing to get repairs done that I would not have been able to do afford.”
“These days when housing market is just so hard, it’s very important for me to know that I have a home and I have somewhere that I can live.”
- Find out more about our Home Repair Programme www.habitatcentral.org.nz. Call us at 07 849 0284 or email [email protected].
- For more about 20 Degrees, see www.20degrees.org.nz/
*Name has been changed by request.
