Mace delivers new social housing for The Salvation Army in Auckland

Mace has delivered much needed social housing in Auckland, New Zealand, for The Salvation Army. 

Located in the Royal Oak suburb of Auckland, the housing community – ‘Te Hononga Tangata’ (meaning ‘coming together of many people’) – was officially opened on Friday 8 November by New Zealand’s Prime Minister The Right Honourable Jacinda Ardern MP. 

At the opening of the housing community, Jacinda Ardern MP welcomed the development’s contribution to providing affordable homes during times of acute housing shortages across the country. 

The Salvation Army owns and operates a number of social housing units around New Zealand. This is their first multi-storey development, developed to meet the organisation’s specific requirements in Auckland. 

The Salvation Army chose Mace to provide project management services due to the scale of the project and the complexities around the contracting environment in Auckland.

The development provides 50 new apartments across three medium-rise buildings. From the outset of the project, The Salvation Army has managed the project with an “outcomes” rather than “outputs” based mindset. Warm, Safe, and Dry were the initial key outcomes, along with creating a sense of community for the residents, some of whom have been on the Social Housing Register for more than five years. 

At the opening of the development, The Salvation Army confirmed that 59 people from the Social Housing Register in Auckland will be moving into the new development.

The Salvation Army had more than 700 referrals for the new apartments – an indication of the huge demand for social housing in Auckland, and throughout New Zealand. 

William Fairbairn, Operations Director at Mace, said:

“We are proud to have worked on this new social housing scheme to support vulnerable people in Auckland. Mace always considers the social value we can add through our work, but rarely do we see such a direct and positive impact of the projects we help deliver.”