Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust (OCHT) and CCC Commence Warm & Dry Initiative
Heat pumps will be installed in hundreds of social housing units across the city over the coming months as part of the Warm & Dry initiative which aims to improve conditions for tenants.
Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust (OCHT) and the Christchurch City Council are working together to raise the standard of social housing in Christchurch.
“Our main focus this year is on improving the heating and ventilation in our homes so that we can offer our tenants a greater degree of comfort over the colder winter months. Our goal is to ensure that all our tenants are living in homes that are warm and dry.
“We are working in partnership with the Council on roll-out of this initiative and we are aiming to complete the work with the minimum disruption to tenants. Through the Warm & Dry Initiative a staged approach to roll out will see around 2,200 houses have improvements made wherever practicable. This may include installation of heat pumps, ventilation, draught stopping and scoping for other insulation,’’ says OCHT Chief Executive Cate Kearney.
The Warm and Dry initiative is being funded by the Council through a $10 million loan and $6 million from the Housing Development Fund.
The first stage of this work programme is planned to get underway in February 2020 with the 909 homes that are exempt from the minimum insulation standards among the first to get new heat pumps and improved ventilation installed. We aim to have this work completed by winter 2020.
Insulation scoping will occur by May this year and any improvements to insulation will occur by December 2020.
The remaining homes will receive heat pumps and other improvements such as ventilation and draught stopping. OCHT goal is to have all properties compliant with the Healthy Home Standards by the end of December 2022.
The Healthy Homes Standards cover requirements around heating, insulation, ventilation, moisture and drainage, and draught stopping. Registered Community Housing providers like OCHT have until 1 July 2023 to ensure all their properties comply with the standards.
January 2020