Emma Taylor visits the flat of retired journalist and mental health advocate Norrie Powers, to discuss what it is really like living in social housing. Photography by Mark Tantrum

A place to call home

Norrie has Irish and Maori heritage, both of which are signified by engravings in his tokotoko (walking sticks)

The place that Norrie calls home

Central Park is perfectly situated just outside the CBD

Norrie is a man of many talents. He carved this lizard, his kaitiaki (guardian), on a stick he found on the beach

Norrie's one-bedroom apartment is adorned with all things important to him, and photographs of his beloved grandchildren take centre stage

My Home Feature: Central Park Council homes in Brooklyn Wednesday 18 February 2015. Photo by Mark Tantrum | www.marktantrum.com

Norrie proudly gave us the grand tour of his home, pointing out some of its finer features, such as the large amount of storage space

Norrie's possessions show his artistic and creative personality

My Home Feature: Central Park Council homes in Brooklyn Wednesday 18 February 2015. Photo by Mark Tantrum | www.marktantrum.com

Norrie shows off his cheeky side, playing up for the photographer

Norrie has quite an extensive collection of DVDs and VHS tapes

My Home Feature: Central Park Council homes in Brooklyn Wednesday 18 February 2015. Photo by Mark Tantrum | www.marktantrum.com

My Home Feature: Central Park Council homes in Brooklyn Wednesday 18 February 2015. Photo by Mark Tantrum | www.marktantrum.com

My Home Feature: Central Park Council homes in Brooklyn Wednesday 18 February 2015. Photo by Mark Tantrum | www.marktantrum.com

My Home Feature: Central Park Council homes in Brooklyn Wednesday 18 February 2015. Photo by Mark Tantrum | www.marktantrum.com

My Home Feature: Central Park Council homes in Brooklyn Wednesday 18 February 2015. Photo by Mark Tantrum | www.marktantrum.com

  • Nor­rie has Irish and Maori her­it­age, both of which are sig­ni­fied by engrav­ings in his toko­toko (walk­ing sticks)

Nor­rie Powers has lived in social hous­ing for the past six years, and moved into the newly ren­ov­ated Cent­ral Park Apart­ments in Brook­lyn two years ago.

Long story short, buy­ing a home for the kids mixed with a few oth­er life decisions meant I ended up here,” Nor­rie tells us with a chuckle. He sits in his arm­chair and com­ic­ally shares tales of his life as a journ­al­ist and about the place he calls home.

This spot right here is my favour­ite,” he says. “I love read­ing, keep­ing up with cur­rent affairs and watch­ing movies right here in this seat.” With his favour­ite chair per­fectly situ­ated in line with the tele­vi­sion and a view of a pōhu­tukawa, you can­not blame him.

When I draw the blinds and it is beau­ti­ful out there, I think, geez, I am a lucky bug­ger,” he says.

Norrie’s one-bed­room apart­ment is adorned with all things import­ant to him, pho­to­graphs of his beloved grand­chil­dren and an extremely large DVD and VHS col­lec­tion tak­ing centre stage.

I live in one of the safest and health­i­est places in the coun­try since the upgrades,” he says as he proudly gives us the grand tour. “We have a state-of-the-art inter­com sys­tem, and the front doors are recycled from Fort Knox!” he adds with a grin.

What’s more, Cent­ral Park is safe from earth­quakes, Nor­rie tells us, and pro­ceeds to regale us with the tale of the June 2013 earth­quake, when he found him­self at his mate Colin’s apart­ment hug­ging a whisky bottle and hop­ing his home was okay. “When I returned, only a photo had fallen to the ground,” he says.

You can­not under­es­tim­ate the power of a safe and healthy home, it is won­der­ful and has worked won­ders for my well-being,” Nor­rie tells us. “I actu­ally look for­ward to com­ing home.”

Social hous­ing is no stranger to May­or Celia Wade-Brown, who grew up in a coun­cil flat in Lon­don. A warm, dry and safe home is a fun­da­ment­al right, she says, adding, “I’m delighted that ten­ants are hap­pi­er and health­i­er in our refur­bished apartments.”

Cent­ral Park Apart­ments may not always have had the best repu­ta­tion, but this changed in 2012 after an extens­ive rebuild and upgrade cost­ing $34m — one stage in a long-term pro­ject to bring all of Wel­ling­ton City Council’s hous­ing stock up to a stand­ard the city can be proud of. The apart­ments have become an archi­tec­tur­al mas­ter­piece, and a place its res­id­ents are proud to call home.

Archi­tects Novak + Middleton, the mas­ter­minds behind this pro­ject, became totally involved and com­mit­ted. “They went the extra mile and put their heart and soul into it,” Nor­rie says.

The efforts of the archi­tects and the coun­cil were not only recog­nised by ten­ants, but also fur­ther afield. Cent­ral Park has won mul­tiple awards in New Zea­l­and and Aus­tralia, includ­ing Best Social Hous­ing Pro­ject in the Aus­tralasi­an Hous­ing Awards in 2013.

While there will always be a cer­tain stigma attached to social hous­ing, Nor­rie believes that Cent­ral Park is a step in the right dir­ec­tion toward chan­ging this. “My back­ground in the men­tal health com­munity means that part of my philo­sophy is to destig­mat­ise,” he says.

He explains that when you have a place like Cent­ral Park the ten­ants appre­ci­ate it. “Nicer hous­ing changes how people feel about them­selves,” he says.

A man of many words, Nor­rie needed only a few to explain what liv­ing at Cent­ral Park is like: “Liv­ing here is not like liv­ing in a com­plex. This is a community.”

Nor­rie has no plans to leave the place he calls home, and he thanks his lucky stars that he is for­tu­nate enough to live here. “I am so lucky!” he says, “I love it here, the only way they will get me out of here is by car­ry­ing me out in a box.”

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