From the library - Māori Wellbeing: A Guide for Housing Providers
While designed primarily as a learning and development tool for housing providers, Māori Wellbeing: A Guide for Housing Providers (the Guide) offers ideas to organisations operating in the housing, neighbourhood and urban development sector interested in Māori wellbeing, and to those organisations wanting to develop or enhance their capability to support the wellbeing of Māori.
The Guide was developed at the New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities by Dr Guy Penny (Tāmaki Makaurau/Ngāti Kahungunu ki Te Wairoa) and Dr Lori Leigh in 2024.
The idea for the Guide originally came out of discussions with community housing providers involved in the Public Housing and Urban Regeneration Research Programme.
It presents six pathways, drawn from Te Ao Māori, through which wellbeing is enhanced using whakawhanaungatanga. The overall goal of this model of Māori wellbeing is to support those involved in housing provision and management to create spaces, places and connections that enhance and uplift the mana and mauri of Māori tenants.
It was advanced with input from an advisory group with expertise in kaupapa Māori research, public health, housing and urban design. As well as receiving support and feedback from Community Housing Aotearoa, iterations of the guide were tested with community housing providers Te Toi Mahana and Dwell Housing Trust, and a Wellington-based tenant group.
Housing providers were specifically interested in an evaluation tool using a set of indicators based on the whakawhanaungatanga pathways presented in the model. They emphasised that they wanted a practical way to self-assess the extent to which their organisations were meeting the wellbeing needs of their Māori tenants and to identify gaps in their understanding and practice.
In addition, they were interested in guidance and resources to improve and develop organisational capabilities across Governance, Tenancy Services and Property so that these functions more effectively aligned with the wellbeing needs of their tenants.
A form for ordering the Guide - available in a digital version (download at no cost) or a printed version for $35 (including postage) - is available on the Community Housing Aotearoa website.
Source: Community Housing Aotearoa
FURTHER READING
An Indigenous welbeing guide for housing providers | A discussion posted by the Australasian Housing Institute
A Whakawhanaungatanga Māori wellbeing model for housing and urban environments | Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online (2024; PDF copy)