Plans underway for villages to house rebuild workers in Gisborne and Napier

Plans are underway to house some of the thousands of extra workers who will be brought in to rebuild crumbled roads and bridges in Hawke's Bay and Tai Rāwhiti over the next few years.

Waka Kotahi's Transport Rebuild East Coast Alliance (TREC) told RNZ it was planning two villages - one in Gisborne, and one in Napier - which would house about 150 people each.

The alliance - which also includes KiwiRail, Fulton Hogan, Downer and Higgins - said its "East Coast first" philosophy focused on hiring locals for the work.

But for this big of a job, it would also need to bring in out-of-towners.

"TREC's accommodation strategy is designed to be mindful of pressure on the local housing market, while also supporting local businesses," it said in a statement.

Danny Smith was the Kaikōura recovery manager after the 2016 earthquake decimated State Highway 1, and said while such villages were necessary, they did cause some problems.

The North Canterbury Transport Infrastructure Recovery alliance set up a camp on the outskirts of town to house 300 workers - like those used for miners in Australia.

While that stopped contractors filling up houses that were needed for those who were displaced, Smith said issues ranged from pharmacies struggling to supply medication and a squeeze on hospital beds, to fisticuffs at the pub.

"All of the issues that the community raised, you know, through health, police, pharmacy, welfare... it all happened."

Smith said it was vital the East Coast alliance consulted with the community to hear any concerns and find ways to ease them - like they did in Kaikōura.

"That's just common sense, you know, then you take away a lot of this anti-camp stuff that goes on. And it went on here."

But Smith said the camp brought great economic benefits to the town - and at the end of the day, one thing really mattered.

"Even though it took a year to open it, we were going to get our road opened."

With years ahead in Gisborne's rebuild, Mayor Rehette Stoltz said a village for extra workers was vital, otherwise there would be nowhere for them to live.

"Having lost homes in Tai Rāwhiti through the floods, and already having a housing crisis, it would be tough for us to accommodate workers coming from outside our region to come and work here, to help us in our region rebuild."

Stoltz said she was confident Waka Kotahi would learn from Kaikōura - and had been assured that the workers would supplement the local workforce, not replace them.

"You would think that they would know what worked down there, what didn't work, and hopefully learn from that and make it work here in our region."

Wairoa tackles its own housing shortage

Meanwhile, a Wairoa organisation was taking matters into its own hands.

Tātau Tātau o te Wairoa Trust was converting what was once a rural school into accommodation for 19 people, thanks to $1 million of government funding.

Chair Leon Symes said the old Turiroa school would first house tradies focusing on helping whānau fix their whare - their most immediate need.

"We've got limited tradespeople with the skills required to undertake some of this repair work.

"So we're going to rely on outside tradespeople to help us, and obviously with impact to the housing stock within Wairoa, there is no place for them to stay."

Then, those working on infrastructure projects like fixing roads and building flood protection could live there, he said.

"There's obviously roading projects that are coming in the pipeline, there is the flood resilience work that need to occur as well, so we see this as more long-term, not just a short-term opportunity.

"There's going to be a need to house some of those workers into the future."

Once the dust has settled on the recovery work, the trust wanted to house people working on its orchards which it planned to expand from 18 hectares to 30.

Symes said work on the school would begin in the next month, the first group should be able to move in by February.