Te Tai Tokerau is mourning a man who spent decades lifting others out of poverty, homelessness, addiction and imprisonment.
Ricky Houghton pictured in 2018. Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
Kaitāia's He Korowai Trust chief executive Ricky Houghton (Te Paatu, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Whatua) died early yesterday morning, aged 62, after battling illness.
He devoted his life to helping others - fighting to house dozens of families in upcycled state houses, fighting to stop families losing their homes to mortgagee sales, campaigning to lift the number of Māori wardens instead of police, helping men with addiction and violence problems stop, rallying support for a Māori-owned bank, and establishing a Māori trade training scheme.
He didn't just facilitate emergency housing access, he also established Māori home-ownership schemes.
His advocacy led to big wins, including saving more than 550 homes from mortgagee sales - keeping more than 6000 people housed.
Houghton's efforts were recognised widely when he won the 2018 Kiwibank New Zealand Local Hero Award.
His nephew Jacob Tobin told RNZ whanaunga were deeply hurting, but would always be proud of Ricky Houghton.
"Not only was he an advocate for Māoridom and equality - there was his principles. His manaakitanga, his rangatiratanga and his mana motuhake."
Tobin said his uncle had always been a "ringa raupā" type of person, "somebody who gets their hands dirty".
"He was definitely a leader, not from the front, but from behind, and he ensured that everybody was coming along on the journey."
Te Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis (Ngāpuhi) said he was "devastated" by Ricky Houghton's death.
"He housed people, he clothed people, he fed people. He did a lot at personal cost, he had just tireless energy. He would swing between Auckland and Kaitāia every week. It's just a tragic, a massive loss, for our community and he's just going to be so sorely missed."
Former New Zealand First MP Shane Jones (Ngāi Takoto, Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Kahu) who shares a mokopuna with Houghton, also said his mahi was "extraordinary".
"He was in a class of his own for his advocacy and perseverance."
Jones said: "Politicians encounter many people flying the flag of social development, we don't come across many at all, who have made the contribution or the impression upon the social landscape that Ricky made in the Muriwhenua rohe."
The He Korowai Trust's chair Waitai Petera (Ngāti Kurī, Te Aupōuri) said Houghton left a legacy of selflessness, and was a "brilliant" person.
"Oh my god, it will be hard to follow because he thought so much of these people rather than himself. And it's [what is] so sad about it. He just poured all his time, all his efforts, everything, into making it a better life for his people."
Petera said Houghton "never stopped working at all".
Te Paatu ki Kauhanga Trust Board chair Ngaire Tauhara-White (Te Paatu, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Hine, Te Rarawa) said Houghton's "contribution to housing, employment and social services for our people is unmeasurable".
"Kua hinga te tōtara i Te Waonui a Tāne."
In 2018 Houghton told RNZ's Te Ahi Kaa he was "grateful" for his mahi leading the He Korowai Trust.
"These families that come in here, I'll wash their feet. I love them. I'll feed them, I'll care for them. I'll do anything for them in the self-belief that, life being the way it is, in a heartbeat my life could change."
He said: "I hope that one day in the future, [to] my mokopuna and my children, somebody will say, you know, your poppa, he helped my parents, and maybe I can help you."
Houghton will lie at Te Piringatahi o te Maungaarongo Marae before returning home to Pamapuria, near Kaitāia.