River restoration often focusses on riparian planting, hoping water quality improvements will improve overall ecosystem health. While these interventions are important, successful community recovery requires additional steps to improve aquatic habitat. In-stream restoration can be challenging to implement, particularly where restoration efforts are undertaken by not-for-profit and community organisations with limited resources and expertise. We trialled the addition of simple, in-stream habitat units as a practicable restoration tool and opportunity to investigate community recovery. Habitat units were designed to be simple to construct using biodegradable, readily-available materials, and optimised to create heterogeneous habitat and refugia for macroinvertebrates. Stream invertebrates predominantly disperse via downstream drift, and potential colonists will continue to drift until suitable habitat is found. Therefore, by comparing drifting invertebrates to those in existing habitat and those which established in habitat units, we can identify mechanisms underpinning community recovery, including insufficient habitat quality, lack of available niche space, and biotic interactions. Habitat units were installed in Glenariffe Stream (Upper Rakaia, New Zealand) which forms a system of channels across a high-country wetland. The surrounding land has recently been retired from agriculture, and the area is undergoing restoration. Water quality is good, however in-stream habitat is homogenous with limited refugia. Six weeks post-installation, invertebrate communities occupying habitat units were more diverse and included more sensitive taxa than communities from existing habitat, indicating a positive impact of habitat addition. Furthermore, drifting invertebrate communities were more similar to communities within the installed habitat units than in the existing habitat, suggesting habitat addition facilitated establishment of additional taxa arriving via drift. This trial highlights the importance of considering simple, in-stream actions as part of wider restoration plans. We also present offshoot projects implementing similar measures across New Zealand, including incorporation of mātauranga Māori into habitat unit designs.