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The Vanguard St cabins have funky, corrugated iron exteriors in bright colours.
Victory’s new cabin community has opened its doors, with eight new cabins built to help ease the pressure from Nelson’s housing shortage.
Victory Church lead minister the Rev Watiri Maina said the Wikitōria Cabins, which were opened on Monday, were a partnership between the church, Habitat for Humanity, the Salvation Army, Te Piki Ora, NMIT and The Male Room. They offered transitional housing to the local community.
Maina said there was currently a housing crisis in Nelson, particularly after Covid-19, and he hoped that the ministry could help to alleviate some of the community’s needs.
“It’s about giving people a place of hope, community and belonging,” he said.
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The land the cabins are situated on was bought by Victory Church in 2016, and in 2021 the church began discussions with Habitat For Humanity – which provided the “skills to build”, and the Salvation Army, who had connections with people who were in need of temporary housing.
“At Victory Church, we want to be a people who offer hospitality to our neighbours,” he said.
“We want to be a blessing to the local community of Victory, and this is a way we can physically do this.”
The blessing for Victory’s Wikitoria Cabins on Monday.
Their greatest desire, he said, was that those living there would find it a place of “hospitality, welcome and love”.
The complex, which was inspired by a similar community in Carterton, is home to eight cabins, an ablutions block including a laundry and a communal whare – a kitchen and dining area.
Habitat for Humanity Nelson general manager Nick Clarke said the grouping was effectively “a relocatable village”.
“We’ve got to be creative with a whole range of housing solutions … and this is a relatively cost-effective way of getting some people into some decent accommodation as another step on that journey.”
Clarke said the set-up was designed to be “warm, dry, comfortable and pleasant”.
Housing First team leader Jaap Noteboom previously told the Nelson Mail that the cabins would serve as transitional housing while people waited for social housing to become available.
Having the cabins as part of a community meant that those living there could form their own support network, coming together to cook meals and hang out, he said.
The hope was the cabins would be a “positive step towards people finding a forever home”, but also long term wellbeing.
“People who have given up their hope and dreams all of a sudden have a place and are able to dream again … with support from us,” he said.
Maina said the Nelson Salvation Army, who lead Housing First, was currently working through applications for people to tenant the cabins.
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