The Diocese of Wellington's ongoing focus on building homes is paying dividends with the first two houses from its prefabrication factory delivered onto church land in Whanganui on 22 October 2024. 

Archbishop Justin Duckworth is pleased to see the Anglican Church stepping up to meet an urgent community need. 

"New Zealand faces a housing crisis. Our diocese is responding by putting new homes on available parish land. This synod priority is a tangible way of addressing one of the big issues of our day and it opens up missional opportunities for parishes to build community and serve their neighbours." he said in a video shared with Diocesan Synod this year. 

The two new houses follow on from eight houses already built by the diocese in the Lower Hutt suburb of Taitā that were blessed earlier this year.

The new two-bedroom homes are sited next to the vicarage at St Luke's Castlecliff Whanganui and are the first two transportable, energy-efficient homes delivered from the new Featherston-based diocesan prefabrication factory onto church land.

Whilst landscaping was underway on the back of the section and plumbers were working on getting water connected to the homes on 22 October, around 30 Anglicans from the local parish and Wellington Diocesan Centre took time to pray for the housing project and the community it will serve, before checking out inside the houses.

Chris Kirby, one of the Priests-in-charge at St Luke's Castlecliff told the visitors how the land next to the vicarage where the houses now stand used to be an underutilised sloping, scruffy part of the section. He reported that many local people were surprised that two spacious two-bedroom units could now fit alongside the vicarage.

Many Anglicans who had seen the houses during construction in the Featherston factory before they were shipped to site noted how much bigger the homes felt when situated on the land, and a number reported they would love to live in one.

One of those was Rose Robinson, who was stoked to see people walking through the homes, and particularly proud of the value the houses will add to the community.

"Rental accommodation is usually older housing stock, which is so far below the standard of building code. These houses are built to above code standard meaning they will be cosy, healthy, economical homes for tenants." she said.

Once the landscaping and interior work is finished on the new houses, the Diocese will bless them for community use on 10 November 2024. 

The St Luke's Castlecliff project is part of the Diocesan Housing Programme, which is led by Diocesan Housing Manager Nick Young. You can learn more about the programme in the short video prepared for Wellington's diocesan synod.