A local family of five is now living in their own home after a word-of-mouth tip about the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust (QLCHT) turned into a life-changing home ownership opportunity.

Local man Glen Thurston is well known in Wānaka for his Herculean mission where he climbed Corner Peak 53 days in a row for mental health awareness.

That sense of perseverance had not been enough to get Glen, his wife Jen, and their three children across the line on a home purchase in the notoriously expensive Upper Clutha housing market.

“Every time we’d go to the bank the goalpost would move and the prices would go up,” Glen told the Wānaka App. 

“Wānaka is home but we felt like we were getting pushed out.”

The long-term locals had “given up completely”, Glen said, when someone recommended they reach out to QLCHT, a non-profit which helps provide affordable housing under a range of ownership and tenancy models.

Glen, pictured, said the QLCHT went “above and beyond”.

Fast-forward to now and the family is living in their brand new, three-bedroom house in Northlake.

“The moment I walked into this house it was like a weight had finally been lifted,” Glen said. 

After moving rentals five times in just the previous 18 months it was an unbelievable feeling to know they wouldn’t need to move again, unless they wanted to.

Glen and Jen purchased the home under QLCHT’s Secure Home model and the settlement date is next Friday; however they were able to move in a couple of months early. 

“Not only is it all a relief, it has been so easy,” Glen said. “QLCHT went above and beyond.”

Secure Home is one of five housing models offered by the QLCHT. Under it, the trust leases the land on a 100-year lease and a purchaser buys the house at the cost of construction.

If a purchaser chooses to sell a Secure Home, it will be returned to the trust at the purchase price plus inflation.

“It’s not like we’ve made it now and we’ll make millions,” Glen said. “But even owning the house, I’m not paying dead rent anymore and we’re not gonna get kicked out.”

“The kids are just so stoked to know they don’t have to pack their boxes again.”

Glen’s family is one of nine households living in their newly completed Northlake homes with QLCHT’s support, and one of 253 households the QLCHT has helped into quality, stable housing across its four housing models since its conception in 2007. 

The trust’s chief executive, Julie Scott, discussed their work at a recent public meeting in Lake Hāwea, where 60 new QLCHT homes are going into the Longview subdivision.

She said QLCHT had more than 900 households on its waiting list and in May alone the list increased by over 100 households. 

“Everyone is aware there is such a big crisis, particularly in rentals, at the moment,” she said. 

Around half of that waiting list is singles, which includes a growing number of older people with housing instability, and the other half is families, Julie said. 

She said the trust’s mission is to help provide good, quality affordable housing for those people who are committed residents of the district. 

“What the housing trust are doing is helping people like myself, helping people who are contributing to the community,” Glen said. 

Learn more about the QLCHT here.