Four Eco-Friendly Homes Set to Revitalize City Council Housing

• Council announces the construction of four energy-efficient homes on Council-owned land, marking a significant step towards revitalizing city housing.
• The Housing Innovation project, a result of a decade’s effort, aims to provide sustainable, warm, and healthy living spaces.
• The initiative serves as a pilot project, introducing modern, sustainable materials and construction methods to enhance the Council’s housing service delivery.

The city took a significant step forward in its mission to enhance Council housing with the announcement that four energy-efficient, warm, and healthy homes built on Council-owned land. This initiative represented the initial phase in a comprehensive plan to renovate and revitalise Council housing across the city.

Erin Moogan, Council Group Manager of Infrastructure, highlighted that the Housing Innovation project emerged from a decade’s worth of effort within the Council. “These units will not only be houses but warm and dry healthy homes, not only built strong but built sustainably, not only good for our tenants but good for the planet, built to love and built to last,” Moogan stated.

The new units constructed on Stirrat St are part of the Invercargill City Council’s initiative to enhance and expand social housing for the elderly. Deputy Mayor Tom Campbell emphasized the project’s role in improving Council housing for the elderly in Southland:

“These new units are the first step in renovating and revitalising Council housing for the elderly in Southland,” he said. He highlighted the Council’s commitment to social responsibility and addressing the needs of a vulnerable population segment: “This aligns with Council’s desire to act based on social responsibility and to meet an identified need for a vulnerable segment of our population.”

Lee Butcher, the Council Project Management Office Programme Director, shared that the units were to be constructed using modern, sustainable materials. These materials are designed to ensure the homes are economical to heat, remain warm and dry, and are easy to repair and renovate. “These houses represent a pilot project that aims to modernize Council’s model for delivery of housing services to meet the needs of some of our most vulnerable people,” Butcher said.