ANZEA Conference 2022

139 Greys Avenue replaces a 1960s 12-storey public housing building no longer serving customers well. Kāinga Ora recognised an opportunity to construct 276 new units to address the housing deficit in central Auckland using a single site supported housing (SSSH) model, with mixed-use commercial, mixed-tenure residential and community development to enhance customers, community and staff opportunities and wellbeing.  

Mana whenua, Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei, gifted the name Programme Raranga to the service and operating model for 139 Greys Avenue. The name means ‘weaving together’ and reflects the multi-dimensional approach to the development, including the breadth of interventions and interests, informing, serving and ultimately planning to occupy and work there. Prospective new residents include 80 former rough sleepers offered a ‘housing first’ opportunity with wraparound medical, social support and community development opportunities. The remaining public housing will be for customers with low to medium needs, identified as suitable through a place-based placement pilot. The remaining 76 apartments are allocated to market rentals, a first for Kāinga Ora.

The evaluation aims to track the rationale and assumptions underpinning the interventions through a process evaluation. Additionally, the approach will evaluate implementation and impacts on customers, community and staff over a 10-year study period.  The real-time design evaluation allows each decision and its rationale to be captured as an impact assumption. This major strength is also a challenge, as many choices remain un-finalised, and co-dependencies are unclear; furthermore, causal effects are hard to attribute with the simultaneous implementation of multiple interventions. The approach adopts a theory of change model to track anticipated impacts and outcomes, against a human-centred design model measuring success relative to the customers’ personal goals and against the design philosophy of Te Whare Tapu Whā.