Wesley Rātā Village is taking another step forward in its transformation into a vibrant, intergenerational community.
Chris Bishop, the Minister of Housing, joined us this morning for a tree-planting ceremony for Pohutukawa Apartments, a $7.8m project that will see a 62-year-old former rest-home at the village converted into 16 affordable rental apartments. Designed by Ignite Architects, the project was made possible by a capital injection from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.
Work on Pohutukawa Apartments, which will be located in the 50-bed Strand building, is expected to start in July. Once the 16 apartments are completed they will be rented at a discounted rate to people who do not qualify for social housing but who cannot afford market rents.
Pohutukawa Apartments are the second conversion project at the village. Work is now almost finished on a $4.8m project to turn the former hospital wing into 15 apartments. They will be known as Kowhai Court and will be made available to people on the social housing waiting list, with a particular focus on older people.
The 31 new apartments will take the total number of affordable rental homes at the village to 86. They include 30 independent-living villas that had been on the site for many years, as well as 25 new social houses that were completed in 2021.
We provided aged residential care on the beautiful, 60-hectare site for more than 60 years before making the difficult decision to stop providing the service in 2017.
However, as difficult as that decision was it also marked the start of a new chapter that has seen what was previously known as Wesleyhaven reborn as Wesley Rātā Village.
This rebirth followed conversations with the local community about how to develop the site into a community asset while respecting its historical association with older people. Working together they came up with a vision to create a place that weaves community and enhances wellbeing.
That vision is now well on the way to being realised. As well as providing warm, dry, affordable rental homes for around 70 mostly older people (that number will increase to more than 100 once the apartments are built) the village has also become a hub for a range of community activities, all of which help create a sense of connection and belonging for residents. They include programmes for older people as well as activities for parents, babies and children. There’s also a community food garden and a recently established community composting scheme.
Wesley Community Action director David Hanna says it’s very satisfying to see the transformation taking place at the village.
“In 2017 we took a leap of faith and decided to shift our focus from institutional care to helping create a village of people wanting to live in their own place surrounded by opportunities to engage, contribute, and retreat. It’s very exciting to see that now happening.”