Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust was established by Christchurch City Council in 2016. The formation of the Trust reflects the Council’s wish to move to a more financially sustainable model for its social housing portfolio of 2300 units, improve the quality of its housing and the satisfaction of its tenants, and allow for new developments responding to social housing needs in Christchurch.
As a charitable trust, any surplus money will be reinvested back into social housing to improve the service provided to tenants and the wider community.
The Trust will undertake its activities with a focus on people – its tenants, employees and other stakeholders. The vision, values and strategic priorities reflect the desire of the Trust to transition the Council’s housing portfolio to the Trust in a seamless manner that:
- minimises any inconvenience,
- supports a tenant-centric focus and culture,
- enables the Council to maintain its housing stock in a financially sustainable way and
- supports the improvement of the housing stock.
Our values
Meaningful partnerships we actively collaborate and engage with community minded partners
Honesty and integrity we act with sincerity and empathy, we do what is right not what is easy
Innovation we always seek creative solutions
Accountability it is what we do and not do, for which we are at all times financially prudent and accountable
Respect we show people that they and their wellbeing are important to us by what we say and do
Celebration we recognise and celebrate the efforts and achievements of the people we help, volunteers, supporters and staff
Respect and honesty
Our team is here to help you at every point, and we will always be professional, polite, and responsive, regardless of who you are or what your current circumstances might be. It also means we’ll always do our best to:
- return your calls as soon as possible within our regular office hours
- process out-of-hours calls to be followed up on the next day
- respond to maintenance issues in a timely way
Looking to the future
We will always be looking for ways to make things better for you and for Christchurch communities. We welcome your feedback and ideas – watch this space for more ideas on how we will engage with our tenants.