The Rotorua Trust is providing a further $50,000 towards the cost of improving housing through the popular “retrofit” Rotorua Healthy Homes insulation programme.
The Trust is a cornerstone supporter of the Healthy Homes Rotorua project, and has been supporting the project since 2005. It is estimated about 2,500 homes have been insulated since that time.
Nik Gregg of Sustainability Options, which is assisting in delivery of the project, says what the Trust is doing is important, because not only do the occupants of the homes benefit but also the Rotorua community, and future occupants benefit.
“A healthy home has a lasting and positive impact on people, business and community,” Nik says.
Feedback from residents over the years has highlighted the importance of better insulation; how children who had been sick over winter, were now well, how children did better at school, and adults could work more consistently, and how elderly residents have enjoyed greater levels of comfort over cold winters.
Supporting this feedback, has been numerous research studies emphasizing the health benefits of home insulation. Dr.Phillipa Howden Chapman (Wellington School of Medicine) states that “retrofitting insulation in houses leads to reduction in colds, flue and respiratory symptoms, less time off work and fewer doctor and
hospital visits”.
This year, funding by the Rotorua Trust has been supported by the government, the Southern Trust and Bay Trust, enabling
Rotorua to benefit from a Healthy Homes project investing $355,000 in to the Rotorua community.“Without the commitment by the Rotorua Trust, the rest of this funding would not be possible – it’s
a great opportunity for Rotorua.”
To deliver the project, the Rotorua Trust has partnered with the WISE Better Homes, a Waitara-based trust delivering employment initiatives and healthy housing projects throughout the central and lower North Island.
“Ultimately, with the help of WISE Better Homes, what we are looking to do, is to create a project of significant enough proportions so that it is able to create sustainable employment in Rotorua for the benefit of Rotorua families and the Rotorua community.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
WISE Better Homes
0508 238 837
info@betterhomes.co.nz