4. Question No. 4—HousingJAN LOGIE (Green) to the Minister of HousingQuestion No. 4—Housing4. JAN LOGIE (Green) to the Minister of Housing: What is the Kāinga Ora universal design standards target and when did the board adopt this target?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Housing): The Kāinga Ora board adopted the accessibility policy in September 2019. The policy set an initial target of having at least 15 percent of Kāinga Ora public homes new-builds meeting full universal design standards with the rest meeting as many of the universal design standards as possible. What the Kāinga Ora accessibility policy seeks to achieve is homes that were briefed after 1 October 2019 and contracted on or after 1 July 2020 meeting those universal design targets.Jan Logie: Why then did the Minister say in the Social Services Committee on 21 June that the target was only put in place in 2021?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Because the policy was passed in 2019 with an implementation date for delivery from 2021. As we talked about at the select committee hearing there is a lag between a policy being set and the homes that are contracted. It is only the homes that are contracted post 1 July 2020 that will see delivery through into 2021.Jan Logie: Is it true as reported by Stuff on 15 March that Kāinga Ora reached 9 percent universal design for new-build public housing which is actually only 1.5 percent of all new-build public housing and if so why have they failed to meet their own targets?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: We are on track to deliver the targets for this financial year. There were some delays as the member will know some COVID-related construction delays that meant that there was more in the pipeline that were contracted prior to those dates. What we are seeing though are some examples of some developments that are coming through that have incredibly high standards of the universal design targets—for example Greys Avenue: 60 percent of the new apartments will reach that. In Ēpuni where the Prime Minister and I visited last week a 32-unit development 50 percent of those units have been built to universal design standards. And in Highbury Triangle in Auckland where there are 192 units specifically designed for older people all of those are accessible properties with wheelchair and mobility scooter ramps built to an incredibly high standard. So what we can see is that properties that are contracted later and being delivered now are far exceeding that target.Jan Logie: Does she stand by her comment I'm not accepting the missed targets." when data from Kāinga Ora's dashboard states that they built 1266 homes while the policy was taking effect with only 70 houses being built to full universal design by the end of 2022 nowhere near the 15 percent target?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: I've addressed the question that the member's just put in previous answers. The member needs to look at when those projects were contracted. The reality is that it takes several years in terms of design so delivery that you're going to see post that many of those homes would have been contracted pre the 2020 date.Jan Logie: Then why was the target set to be achieved between August 2021 and July 2022? That's what's in the policy.Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: As we've also talked about in this House on multiple occasions clearly there was a delay in construction throughout 2020 and 2021. In fact very few homes could be constructed while the country was in lockdown. We have already acknowledged that that did have a delay in meeting those targets as it did with construction targets more generally."