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| COOK’S KITCHEN: Hola is a keen cook and loves her light, bright new kitchen and all its cupboard space. |
Glenn Innes tenant Hola Koloamatangi
describes living in her new Housing New Zealand home as the equivalent of
winning the lottery.
“I won first division with this place.
That’s how I feel – like I’ve won Lotto.”
The mother of two adult children, who has
endured four redundancies and now works as a caregiver, had previously lived
just a stone’s throw away from where she is now, in Sunnymead Road.
The old state house there had been home for
Hola, her father and children for 17 years. But back in February she learned she would
have to move, enabling the land where her house stood to be redeveloped. It was
a time of anger and anxiety.
“I was panicked and I was angry at Housing
New Zealand to be honest. I didn’t want to shift after 17 years. I was a bit
nervous that I was going to be moved out of Glen Innes – I know the area so
well and all my family are here.” Hola says seeing houses demolished and
moved out of the area also made her worry. “I just thought ‘where are you going to put
us’?”
But Hola says she placed her faith in her
Housing New Zealand tenancy liaison officer, Jenni Loui, who assured her she’d
find her a good home.
True to her word, several weeks later, Jenni
invited the grandmother of three to take a look at a newly-built two-bedroom home
she might like in Apirana Ave.
“I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it,
just from the outside,” Hola smiles. And the love affair continued when she saw
the inside.
“It’s beautiful. It’s spacious, clean and has
more cupboard space in the kitchen than the old place,” she says. “And I can
feel how warm it is. My son is a builder and when he came into the house the
first time he said ‘mum, it’s so warm’.”
The house is a dream Hola secretly
harboured but never thought would come true.
“I saw all these new houses being built in
the neighbourhood and I’d look at them and imagine where I’d put my things!”
she says. In May, the keen cook - who often has her grandchildren
to stay - realised her dream when she moved in to her new home and furnished it
immaculately.
Now, with time to reflect, she says she can
see her old home wasn’t the best place for her to be.
“When I look back at where I was before I
realise it was time to move – I was too comfortable there. And the back and
front yards at Sunnymead were getting too much for me. I like to be clean and
tidy but sometimes I had to leave the lawns too long because I couldn’t pay for
the mower man.”
It’s an issue the avid gardener, who moved
from Tonga to New Zealand when she was 22, doesn’t face in her new home.
“The house is a much better layout and
there’s just enough grass for me to look after. I even have a garage.”
The property is one of eight houses, a
mixture of four private and four Housing New Zealand homes built side-by-side in
partnership with Creating Communities Limited.
The development is an example of Housing
New Zealand’s ‘blind tenure’ philosophy whereby it’s impossible to distinguish
between private and social housing. And Hola says even her friends are in awe
of her new home.
“They can’t believe it. They say ‘you’re so
lucky!’” It’s a sentiment she agrees with fully.
“I can’t thank Housing New Zealand enough for doing things like this. I’ll
really look after it.”
