4. Community Participation and Democratic Engagement Guideline 14: In accordance with international human rights treaties and declarations, ensure all individuals and communities have the opportunity for active and informed participation on housing issues that affect them. Additionally, Te Tiriti requires government to work in partnership, and share decision-making, with its Tiriti partners. Community participation and democratic engagement are already a feature of the housing system in Aotearoa, and we signal some of this engagement in this chapter. We recognise that HUD and other agencies are striving to deepen public participation in the housing landscape, consistent with the Public Service Act 2020 and other important developments, some of which are also outlined in this chapter. As we noted in Chapter 1, the co-governance hui Te MAIHI Whare Wānanga has been developed in partnership between HUD and Te Matapihi as a forum bringing together Māori and Crown officials to oversee the delivery of the MAIHI Framework for Action and MAIHI Ka Ora. The development of MAIHI Ka Ora is a game changer in terms of commitment to genuine partnership with Māori for Māori housing. In this report we explore how this commitment can be reinforced and implemented across the housing system in the kāwanatanga sphere. In a constructive spirit, we suggest how the government could advance active, informed, inclusive, and meaningful public participation and democratic engagement in this space. We strongly affirm the government’s obligation to co-design, make joint decisions and have shared partnership with its Tiriti partner. How to discharge this obligation is one of the most important constitutional challenges facing contemporary Aotearoa. The report of Matike Mai Aotearoa, the independent Working Group on Constitutional Transformation, provides options to consider. The Housing Inquiry looks forward to considering these crucial issues and making recommendations in the specific context of GPS-HUD and MAIHI Ka Ora. HUD’s place-based approach seeks to improve outcomes for people through a focus on the places they live, including through local collaboration and partnership. HUD’s work to implement the Homelessness Action Plan also includes an initiative to establish a credible, long-term platform for engagement with people with lived experience of homelessness.29 However, our focus in this report is not on these important constitutional matters. We focus here on public participation and democratic engagement across all communities involved in housing, including tangata whenua. These two enterprises – co-design and shared partnership on the one hand, and public participation and democratic engagement on the other – are mutually reinforcing, especially when tino rangatiratanga is The government’s commitment to participation, and these initiatives, is very welcome. acknowledged and enables manaakitanga. 19