Sunderland Court opens

Press, 4 April 1987, Page 9

Sunderland Court opens

The need for low-cost inner city rental housing has, in part, been met by the Housing Corporation’s new Sunderland Court on Fitzgerald Avenue. At the official opening of the court yesterday, both Mr Geoffrey Palmer, member of Parliament for Christchurch Central, and the Mayor of Christchurch, Sir Hamish Hay, congratulated the Housing Corporation on the completion of the largest South Island project the corporation has tackled. Mr Palmer said the need for more housing was the biggest continuing problem he had faced since becoming the member of Parliament for Christchurch Central. Sir Hamish said the Christchurch City Council had 900 names on its

waiting list for rental accommodation but, because of financial constraints, only a limited ability to provide accommodation. He said, “I think this complex is good for the inner city area as it helps to arrest the drift to the outer suburbs. We need a good balance of housing within the city centre in order to keep the heart alive.” The $1.97 million project comprises 28 twobedroomed houses and two three-bedroom houses. It was completed and fully occupied last month. Mr Palmer said Sunderland Court was a good example of making the best use of resources. More than two-thirds of the tenants had come from larger sized Housing

Corporation units elsewhere which freed up the family sized homes to meet the needs of other families on the corporation’s waiting list, he said. The homes in Sunderland Court were, on the whole, smaller and designed to meet the tenants’ present requirements and not the needs they had 20 years ago when they had growing families. Mrs Kris Maxwell and her two children, Taylor and James, occupy one of the three-bedroomed houses, which was open for public inspection yesterday.

She said at first she found it disturbing to live in the complex where there was no street traffic and everyone lived close.

“It is like being in a hospital where people keep visiting each other,” she said. But it did not take her long to settle in, and now she welcomes the friendliness and security. Mr Charles Consedine, rental manager for the Housing Corporation in Christchurch, said they* had been fortunate that all. the tenants selected for Sunderland Courts were compatible. Although the corporation has plans for at least another 100 units in Christchurch, Sunderland Courts would probably be the last of the big ones. Most of the new units to be either bought or built by the corporation would be limited to groups of eight houses. ■ ■