Hard hats but a soft touch

For people who help steer communities through difficult times, Piritahi’s community liaison advisors are a skilled and popular bunch.

That’s not easy – they are the people knocking on doors as Auckland’s massive housing programme rolls on, often bringing unwelcome news of road closures, noise, vibrations and other disruptions.

Yet stakeholder and communications manager for Piritahi, Vanessa Kennedy, reveals that the relationships that grow between the community liaison folk and their community often result in real friendships blossoming.

“Some of our people have been invited to weddings by residents,” says Kennedy. “I think the work that we do might also be best illustrated by one house in the middle of one of our very busy construction zones. The resident was unwell so our liaison made temporary arrangements for them while the most disruptive part of our work was going on.

“While civil construction can, at times, impact upon residents and private property, Piritahi minimises this wherever possible and, if necessary, reinstates land and property to its (at least) former condition.”

Piritahi is the alliance comprising six organisations, spearheading what’s been described as the biggest housing change in Auckland since World War II and the huge state house building programmes of the 1960s – increasing our housing density in new ways.

Over the next 20 years, approximately 10,000 state houses will be replaced by around 45,000 homes. Of those, a third will be public housing and two-thirds will be sold to private buyers, through affordable ownership schemes like KiwiBuild and the open market.

Assessing exactly how communities will be affected by civil construction is a priority for Piritahi. Photo / Supplied

In the Oranga neighbourhood for example 335 old houses are becoming 1000. In Ōwairaka, 200 old, poor condition state houses are becoming 1050 new homes.

To make that happen, Auckland’s already struggling infrastructure has to be upgraded or completely new infrastructure provided, covering everything from water supply, wastewater, stormwater, roading, power and communications. The redevelopment also provide the opportunity to improve or add to social infrastructure such as parks, greenways and cycleways.

That’s happening right now in builds in Northcote, Mt Roskill, Mangere, Oranga and Tamaki with master planning by Piritahi’s “client”, Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities, and with design, engineering and construction work carried out by five alliance companies (design, engineering and construction firms Dempsey Wood, Hick Bros Group, Harrison Grierson, Woods and Tonkin + Taylor).

When the baton is passed from the master planners to those responsible for the infrastructure and construction – that’s when the community liaison advisors go to work.

And by “work”, we don’t just mean an office where they write press releases or send out emails. Theirs is a job which means mucking in at the community being affected by the re-shaping of whole precincts.

It’s a job which means getting out and knocking on doors, making sure people know what is happening and that they have listeners available if they need help. It’s a job that requires a hard hat but a soft touch.

Kennedy says a month out from the start of work is the absolute minimum that Piritahi starts connecting with people in an affected area: “That’s the key. We must look after our communities at an early stage before they are affected and during the period of time when things are happening – and we are talking two, three, and five-year programmes in many cases.

“We work collaboratively with the Kāinga Ora community engagement team and the development team and together we consider the relationships we’re building with residents to be long term,” she says. “We have to let them know what is happening and why, and we have a mantra: We are taking them on a journey with us as their neighbourhoods transform.”

Part of the job for the team of six people (each of whom is dedicated to a precinct) is getting involved in neighbourhood meetings, relationship-building exercises like Digger Days or Pick Up Litter days. It is also, says Kennedy, involves “doing things most people wouldn’t think about”.

That includes arranging with the construction team for an adjusted construction schedule if, for example, a resident has come home from an operation in hospital and needs rest. The same goes for a mum, back home with a new baby.

“We’ve done both those things quite a lot,” says Kennedy. “We are very closely linked to the construction team, but we are not part of the construction team. We are there to work with the residents.”

It seems to be working. Kennedy says they work quickly to close out any issues in the ‘issues register’ – though she points out it is never possible to keep everyone happy all the time.

“Sometimes the work we do is disruptive, and we have to acknowledge that we cannot always deliver good news,” Kennedy says. “That’s why building strong relationships in the community is so important.

“The work Piritahi and the wider development teams are doing is benefitting Aucklanders in the long term – by enabling more warm, dry homes to be built faster. That’s the vision we keep in mind every day,” she says.

With some households situated in the heart of construction zones, building positive, long-term relationships is essential. Photo / Supplied

“We do things like help people when their roads are closed so construction or infrastructure upgrading can occur and parking becomes a problem. We find a spare space or an empty site – and turn that into a parking lot for residents.”

It takes, she says, “a special sort of person” to be able to cold-call, knocking on doors and introducing themselves, building relationships so that residents know where to go if they have a problem or a question. In fact, a couple of the team have come from the communities being transformed – deciding to help take their community through that journey by joining an internship and join the ranks of the community liaison advisors.

“We need more people,” says Kennedy. “We are always looking out for more and it is really positive when they come from the communities that have seen how we work and want to join us.”