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The home front: Defence Force’s $3 billion housing problem

Jonathan Killick

Jonathan Killick

January 21, 2024, • 05:00am

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An example of housing owned by the Defence Force in Devonport.
GOOGLE MAPS / SUPPLIED

New Zealand’s armed services are on the defence in a battle for the home front – with hundreds of government-owned houses that have fallen into disarray.

It’s also a war of attrition. The Defence Force has reportedly lost roughly a third of its uniformed staff in the last three years, which it attributes in part to substandard homes.

In a recent report, it said that while its houses would meet Healthy Homes standards, they would still be “unfit for modern living” without urgent intervention.

It said that military homes – provided for defence personnel and their families – were posing health risks and could cause “housing-related stress”.

The solution, according to the Defence Force, is a $1.011 billion cash injection over 25 years, in addition to $2b from its existing budget. This would yield 1628 “modern quality” homes.

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For this money, 227 new houses would be built, while 877 would be refurbished, and a further 524 would be leased from the private market.

Stuff heard from former and serving defence personnel who spoke about their situations on condition of anonymity.

The Crown has now been obliged to hand over 270 of the navy’s houses to Marutūāhu under a settlement
GOOGLE MAPS / SUPPLIED

“The armed forces are struggling hugely with retention and I think it’s probably at a tipping point, but no one would admit it,” one said.

They said their house was poorly insulated with draughty windows, and running a heat pump to warm it was expensive. It had been cheap rent that had “made the equation work”.

They have a family in navy-owned subsidised housing, living in a four-bedroom house which costs around $320 a week.

It sounds like a great deal, but the reality is more complicated.

Defence’s General Manager of Estate Strategy Phil Gurnsey points out that Defence sets its rents based on the going rate in Manawatū, and in Auckland homes could be up to $350 a week cheaper than the market rate.

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However, personnel say that has to be put into context of a hard-won pay increase, announced in May. They got an average rise of 30%.

Meanwhile, one defence employee has had a 50% increase in rent compared to three years ago, and was expecting a further 35% increase in April 2024. They said it meant they had effectively had a pay cut.

“I know of single parents who struggle to make ends meet. Even as an officer, they are living pay cheque to pay cheque,” one personnel said.

According to the Government’s careers website, navy officers start on $51,000 and can progress to between $70,000-$84,000 when they reach Ensign level. Lieutenants can earn up to $117,000.

Royal NZ Navy frigate Te Kaha returns to friends and family at Devonport Naval base in 2011. Pictured is Petty Officer Brent Hill with daughter Charlotte. (File image)
PHIL DOYLE / STUFF

Broadly, personnel described how housing had the most impact on the cost of living for young families, which put pressure on mid-career personnel. On this, Defence agrees.

Defence said that it had modelled the future need of houses based on the number of personnel with more than five years but fewer than nine.

“This group are critical to military outputs, have the skills to be fully effective in their role and are known to be at a higher risk of leaving the Defence Force, often due to family reasons.”

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The problem is perhaps most acutely felt by the navy, which has its primary base of operations at Devonport, one of Auckland’s most expensive and congested suburbs.

The Devonport Naval Base is situated on prime waterfront real estate in Auckland.
CAROLINE WILLIAMS / STUFF

The Crown has now been obliged to hand over 270 of the navy’s houses to Marutūāhu under a settlement, which will leave just 27 homes in the suburb.

It comes as the navy has completed its 32nd report in 26 years on whether it is worthwhile holding onto its base in Devonport and looking at the case for shifting it to Whangārei.

“[It] presents the opportunity to take into account support systems for navy personnel, including improved wellbeing, better work/life balance and improved housing accessibility compared to Auckland.”

It was decided that there would be at least a partial migration, with Defence being instructed to press ahead with a business case for a supplementary training facility in Northland.

The report still found that Devonport had a “superior” deep water channel and a presence should be retained. A full move would cost $945 million more than staying, it said.

There’s another issue. Personnel are only permitted to live in navy-subsidised housing for six years, after which they either have to hope for an extension or find a new home.

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Ex-naval personnel attend Veterans Day at the naval base in Davenport, Auckland.
CHRIS MCKEEN / STUFF

It’s a numbers game. Defence employs 9600 personnel, 2700 reserves and 3100 civilian staff, and has 1821 houses.

“I’m here because I thoroughly enjoy serving, but if I have to live in the Auckland market on a non-competitive salary, I will take my skills elsewhere and not have to leave my family,” as one put it.

It’s said that most Defence jobs are at least 5% below their civilian equivalent; some as high as 18%.

One personnel told Stuff they had already moved their family north of Auckland in order to afford housing, but this had come with the added cost of petrol.

In the meantime, the Defence Force is changing mode from landlord to tenant. It plans to rent 243 properties near Devonport, 75 in Papakura, 34 in Wellington and increase the number it leases at Whenuapai to 172.

In what appears to be a trial, it has already leased 15 two-bedroom units and seven three-bedroom units in a brand-new development in Northcote.

In its housing pitch, Defence said that the nature of the job was that it had to deploy personnel to various locations and having available housing supported that.

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“It allows the Defence Force to post personnel where they are needed to deliver military outputs, including locations with high cost of housing or limited housing supply.”

How did our armed forces get to the point of needing billions to prop up its housing?

Rent for Defence Force homes is based on rates for Manawatū, where the army has a large base.
DAVID UNWIN / STUFF

According to the pitch document prepared for former defence minister Andrew Little, most of the stock is over 60 years old and “does not meet modern functionality or is in a marginal physical condition”.

In the last five years, the military had been able to stump up $10.5 million on maintenance of its housing stock.

Gurnsey told Stuff that Defence had gained initial approval from the previous government for the $3 billion programme, dubbed “Homes for Families”.

Now, it is preparing a full implementation business case for the new regime.

Stuff asked newly-appointed Defence Minister Judith Collins whether she intended to oversee its implementation, but received a non-committal response.

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“This is an operational matter and as such we are happy to leave it with NZDF to comment,” a spokesperson from her office said.

– Stuff

USS Helena (CA-75)

 In Apra Harbor, Guam, December 1952, while en route to the U.S. following her third Korean War combat tour. During this voyage, she carried President-Elect Dwight D. Eisenhower and his party from Guam to Pearl Harbor. 

USS YORKTOWN 1944 PUGET SOUND


USS Yorktown (CV/CVA/CVS-10) is one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy. Initially to have been named Bonhomme Richard, she was renamed Yorktown while still under construction, after the Yorktown-class aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5), which was sunk at the Battle of Midway. She is the fourth U.S. Navy ship to bear the name, though the previous ships were named for 1781 Battle of Yorktown. Yorktown was commissioned in April 1943, and participated in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, earning 11 battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation.

Decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, she was modernized and recommissioned in February 1953 as an attack carrier (CVA), and served with distinction during the Korean War. The ship was later modernized again with a canted deck, eventually becoming an anti-submarine carrier (CVS) and served for many years in the Pacific, including duty in the Vietnam War, during which she earned five battle stars. The carrier served as a recovery ship for the December, 1968, Apollo 8 space mission, the first crewed ship to reach and orbit the Moon, and was used in the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!, which recreated the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and in the 1984 science fiction film The Philadelphia Experiment.

Yorktown was decommissioned in 1970 and in 1975 became a museum ship at Patriots Point, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, where she was designated a National Historic Landmark.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Yorktown_(CV-10)

FS Mistral (L9013) is an amphibious assault ship, a type of helicopter carrier, of the French Navy. She is the fourth vessel to bear the name, and is the lead ship of the Mistral-class amphibious assault ships.

Construction and career

Mistral at the military port of Toulon in 2006
Mistral began sea trials in January 2005, and was commissioned in February 2006. She departed from Toulon for her first long-range journey in March, sailing through the Mediterranean Sea, Suez Canal, and the Red Sea to Djibouti and India, before returning to France. In July, to ensure the safety of European citizens in the context of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, France set up Opération Baliste. Mistral was the flagship of the fleet unit off Lebanon, escorted by the frigates Jean Bart and Jean de Vienne, and along with another amphibious assault ship, Siroco.

On 16 May 2008, the Burmese United Nations (UN) ambassador accused France of deploying Mistral to the Burmese coast for military purposes. The French UN ambassador denied this, stating that she was instead carrying 1,500 tons of relief supplies.[1]

In March 2011 Mistral was deployed to Libyan waters to help aid the joint NATO effort to repatriate tens of thousands of Egyptian refugees fleeing the violence in Libya.[2]

In January 2013, escorted by Chevalier Paul, Mistral took part in the ill-fated operation to retrieve Denis Allex,[3] a DGSE officer held hostage in Bulo Marer.

On 22 May 2022, Mistral, operating in the Gulf of Guinea in conjunction with the La Fayette-class frigate, Courbet, was involved in the seizure of almost two tons of drugs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Mistral_(L9013)

HMS Victorious – Sydney 1965 – HMS Victorious (R38) was the third Illustrious-class aircraft carrier after Illustrious and Formidable.

HMS Victorious – Sydney 1965 – HMS Victorious (R38) was the third Illustrious-class aircraft carrier after Illustrious and Formidable.
Nov. 1966: HMS VICTORIOUS, rebuilt WWII carrier, glides into Sydney

Ordered under the 1936 Naval Programme, she was laid down at the Vickers-Armstrong shipyard at Newcastle upon Tyne in 1937 and launched two years later in 1939. Her commissioning was delayed until 1941 due to the greater need for escort vessels for service in the Battle of the Atlantic.

Her service in 1941 and 1942 included famous actions against the battleship Bismarck, several Arctic convoys, and Operation Pedestal. She was loaned to the United States Navy in 1943 and served in the south west Pacific as part of the Third Fleet. In 1944 Victorious contributed to several attacks on the Tirpitz. The elimination of the German naval threat allowed her redeployment first to the Eastern Fleet at Colombo and then to the Pacific for the final actions of the war against Japan.

After the war, her service was broken by periods in reserve and, between 1950 and 1958, the most complete reconstruction of any Royal Navy carrier. This involved the construction of new superstructure above the hangar deck level, a new angled flight deck,[1] new boilers and the fitting of Type 984 radar and data links and heavy shipboard computers, able to track 50 targets and assess their priority for interrogation and interception. The reduction of Britain’s naval commitment in 1967, the end of the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation, and a fire while under refit, prompted her final withdrawal from service, three to five years early, and she was scrapped in 1969.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Victorious_(R38)

USS Cleveland (C-19/PG-33/CL-21) was a United States Navy Denver-class protected cruiser.


She was launched 28 September 1901 by Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, sponsored by “Miss R. Hanna” (probably Ruth Hanna McCormick), and commissioned 2 November 1903, with Commander William Henry Hudson Southerland in command.

Service history
The Cleveland cruised with the European Squadron, in West Indies and Cuban waters, along the east coast between Hampton Roads and Boston, and on a midshipmen training cruise until 17 May 1907. She then sailed from New York via Gibraltar, Port Said, Aden, Colombo and Singapore to Cavite, arriving 1 August 1907. After three years on the Asiatic station, the Cleveland returned to Mare Island Navy Yard 1 August 1910. Decommissioned 3 August 1910, she was placed in second reserve 8 April 1912, and returned to full commission 31 August 1912.[4]

The Cleveland alternated patrols in waters off Mexico and Central America with reserve periods at Mare Island Navy Yard between 1912 and 1917, protecting American lives and interests from the turmoil of revolution. On 31 March 1917, she arrived at Hampton Roads, and from 9 April to 22 June, patrolled from Cape Hatteras to Charleston. Assigned to escort convoys to a mid-ocean meeting point, the Cleveland made seven voyages between June 1917 and December 1918.[4] In November 1919, Cleveland returned the body of former Salvadoran president Carlos Meléndez (who had died in New York in August 1919) to La Libertad, El Salvador.[5]

USS Cleveland
Returning to patrols off Central and South America, the Cleveland was assigned to the Pacific Fleet once more from 16 February 1920, returning to Caribbean waters from time to time. She was reclassified CL-21 on 8 August 1921. During her continued service in the Caribbean and along the South American coasts, the Cleveland made courtesy calls, supported diplomatic activities, gave disaster relief, and represented American interests in troubled areas. She was decommissioned at Boston 1 November 1929, and sold for scrapping 7 March 1930 in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty limiting naval armament.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cleveland_(C-19)