Mahora Te Aroha: a home and a community

Housing developer offering stability and longevity to alleviate Wellington housing crisis

Wellington-based housing provider Dwell Housing Trust has opened the doors to Mahora Te Aroha - a housing complex with 19 new homes located in Kilbirnie, South Wellington - offering stable rental accommodation in vibrant, warm, dry, healthy housing for eligible tenants who would otherwise be in need of housing.

With 13 years of experience building affordable housing to meet the needs of communities, Dwell’s focus is not just on providing a place for people to live, but to contribute to connected communities by offering long-lasting benefits for its residents. 

Dwell’s Chief Executive Alison Cadman ONZM, 2023 nominee for Wellingtonian of The Year, says that giving people the chance to have a long-term home is part of their primary strategic objective. 

“As well as building and providing homes, we focus on the stability of a household’s place in the community. Allowing people to truly make a home for themselves and settle into the neighbourhood and the community is investing in their future, and that of the place around them. Recent sad events in our city have made our work to provide affordable quality homes, where people are supported to thrive, more important than ever.”

Dwell actively sought feedback from residents of their other properties and discussed learnings to gain insight into the best design and construction practices for these new homes. As well as building quality, affordable housing, Dwell Housing Trust has a keen focus on working with their tenants to access community services that support them through the cycles of life, helping them to sustain healthy tenancies for as long as they need them.

“We want to offer liveable spaces that feel modern and homely. We reflected on a similar project and talked with the builders and our architects, Novak+Middleton, from day 0, ensuring that we honed in on what it was about our build that truly made a difference in people’s lives. We know that when people enjoy their living environment, they’re more likely to contribute to the community positively.” 

“Part of the brief for Mahora Te Aroha was for Dwell’s office to occupy the bottom floor of the development, giving us a central headquarters, and for us to be on-site to assist our tenants as much as we possibly can. We are connected to a number of different social agencies and community organisations, which has proved to be critical in being able to offer the right support when it’s needed.”

Dwell Housing is funded through a number of channels, including government funding, the goodwill of local community-minded businesses, and family trusts and individuals seeking to make a difference in their own communities. Ms Cadman says this is a direct and meaningful way for people to support Dwell.

“Home and community building are expensive, and traditionally government and banks have been the most important partners to Community Housing Providers. However, more and more individuals and family trusts are seeing that they can make a difference and support the provision of housing in their community by supporting Dwell. We would love to see more of this kind of support going forward.”

Mahora Te Aroha was blessed on 17 May by Peter Jackson (Te Atiawa, Taranaki Iwi) who gifted the development its name and whose parents were involved with Dwell some years ago, offering their own blessings on a number of early Dwell properties. “We were honoured for Matua Jackson to take on this role for us. The involvement of his whānau in previous projects is very special and is absolutely what it’s all about at Dwell. We are here for each other and for others.”

During the building process for Mahora Te Aroha, it was brought to Dwell’s attention that the owners of an adjoining site on Onepu Road wanted to sell. Dwell has been able to purchase this property with assistance from its funders and the support of a private trust to add another 10 homes to its Kilbirnie portfolio.

“It’s an exciting addition to an already exciting development. We will be able to add a community room along the street front of Onepu Road and a communal garden in the centre of Mahora Te Aroha, a green space that will be used by all 29 homes. We await Building Consent from Wellington City Council to get started, again making use of the same team that made our previous Kilbirnie developments so successful.” 

Ends.

Dwell Housing Trust is working towards its strategic goal of having 250 healthy, affordable homes for tenants to alleviate housing pressures in the wider Wellington Region. Their unique model of care means that they are one of the only housing developers around that raises capital and builds homes for people in need, as opposed to it being about profit.

Further information on the construction of the development can be found on the Mahora Te Aroha development page.