Kōrero with Andrew Turner

Kia ora Andrew, thanks for your time today. Where did you grow up and how did you come to live in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

So, as you'll tell from my accent, I'm not originally from New Zealand. I grew up in York in the North of England. After studying and working in the UK I had the opportunity to come out to Australia for what was meant to be a year – but the way things played out, I never ended up going back to the UK permanently.
 

I joined a company in Sydney that saw me working on placements in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, India, Pakistan and Europe, and then to Christchurch where I met people that kept me coming back there. I eventually settled in Christchurch and lived there from 1998 until last year when I moved to Auckland.

In Christchurch I got involved in local politics and was elected as a Community Board Member then Councillor between 2010-2022, including two terms as Deputy Mayor from 2016 - 2022.

How do you come to be the chair of Te Toi Mahana?

So, my first foray into housing was as chair of the committee that had oversight of the housing unit within Christchurch City Council. It was there that we started the conversation about setting up a separate trust to access the Income Related Rent Subsidy (IRRS) for tenants. That work eventually resulted in the establishment of the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust (OCHT), which is the equivalent of Te Toi Mahana down in Christchurch. I was one of the establishment Board Members of OCHT when it was first set up.
 

When the Wellington City Council were setting up what is now Te Toi Mahana, and looking for people with relevant experience, they appointed Matt Harker and I as the first two Trustees, and asked me to become Chair.

What have the last 12 months been like?

Pretty full on and pretty busy, but it’s been great to get Te Toi Mahana set up and running successfully. Of course, none of that happened easily or by accident. There was a lot of planning that went into the setup and the transition. We were fortunate to be able to bring a lot of the excellent staff across from Wellington City Council.

There were negotiations with the council around the lease agreement and the various other arrangements and agreements that needed to be put in place.

Then there was the recruitment of more trustees so that we had a mix of council representatives, iwi representatives and independent trustees around the table.

So yes, it's been a lot of hard work, but it's been really rewarding. It's not often you get the opportunity to build a brand-new organisation from the ground up.

What do you see as some of the key challenges and opportunities for Te Toi Mahana?

We've spent the first year really focusing on doing the basics well - tenancy services, the relationship with the council, the relationship with central government.

But as we look forward, we want to focus on ways that we can better collaborate and partner with others. If we look at some of the changes that might be coming, that might represent some real opportunities for housing trusts like us that we need to be ready for.
I'm also keen, particularly with the recent transfer of the properties from Wellington City Council, that we start looking at ways to develop and own our own housing. My hope is that over time our properties grow in number and that we can extend our services to a greater number and a wider range of tenants, and we get more people into the good quality warm dry housing that we need to be providing.

Is there anything else you'd like to share with our tenants?

I know I speak for the other board members when I say we really enjoy the work that we do at Te Toi Mahana. I'm really proud of the organisation that we've built and I love hearing the success stories of where we're really delivering for our tenants.

We're also very aware that the relationships between the tenancy advisors and our tenants is really important. Yes, the board might be making decisions and putting things in place, but it's those people working most closely with the tenants that are doing the really important work to support them.