As the Government moves to have fewer people in emergency housing, Q+A’s Whena Owen went to two regional centres to find out how the policy shift is impacting homelessness and why officials can’t account for 20% of people leaving motels.
In Masterton, it’s been a community effort in response to the problem of homelessness.
Some of the residents have taken it upon themselves to set up a night shelter for what they say is a growing number of people sleeping rough under bridges and in shop doorways.
Resident Stella Lennox, one of the project leaders, hopes volunteer tradies will have the shelter finished by Christmas.
“Sad to say, this is just the ambulance at the bottom of the hill,” she said. “But it’s needed and we’re so grateful to get them in, to have that good night’s sleep.”
Masterton-based list MP and Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said there has been a “noticeable increase” in homelessness over the past six months.
He’s concerned about the freeze on many of the proposed public housing builds and the impact that may have down the line.
“What worries me,” he told Q+A, “is that if these projects have stopped, where are these people gonna go? Are we going to have to build more night shelters to house these people?”
Twenty-five years ago, the National government sold off Wairarapa’s state houses to the local licensing trust. But the previous government decided to bring back Kāinga Ora and, alongside it, a flurry of building. Two planned projects have recently been suspended.
McAnulty fears the new eligibility criteria for getting into motels and stricter obligations while in, may also lead to more homelessness.
A Masterton motelier Q+A spoke to reported a noticeable drop off in MSD referrals since the coalition Government tightened the rules.
Kainga Ora spent nearly $5m on demolition, consent and planning on two developments that are currently going nowhere. (Source: 1News)
Meanwhile, beside a lake on the outskirts of the town, Q+A spoke to several people living in their cars.
One woman living in a sedan said she had been parked there for four months. She sleeps in the front seat while her teenage son, sleeps in the car parked next to her.
“It’s not by choice,” she said. “We can’t afford to rent a house when I don’t make enough each week to cover rent, let alone the cost of power, food, internet and my children”.
Her two daughters have been left with a relative.
She explained she didn’t want to go into an emergency motel because she didn’t want her children to be in that environment.
Three other people, living in their vehicles at the park, said the motels were too restrictive and didn’t like the gang presence in some of them.
Concerns about emergency housing remains in Rotorua
Rotorua was once known as emergency motel central, but the local council reported a 60% decrease in emergency housing in its contracted motels.
Some motels have reverted to tourism, while others stand vacant and in disrepair.
“They’ve made their money and abandoned the motel basically,” says local resident Carolyne Hall. “At the taxpayer’s expense.”
Hall is a spokesperson for the Rotorua residents’ group Restore Rotorua. The group has spent, with donations from local businesses, upward of $700,000 fighting proposed extensions to the contracted emergency motels.
Those motels have dropped from 13 to seven but they are seeking another extension.
“The tourism industry is starting to come back,” she said. “And that’s why we say the extensions should be denied for the whole seven.”
While agencies are working to place families in social housing, nationwide the number of families living in emergency housing has been reduced by a third over the last six months.
But is the data capturing the movement of single people? Meredith Herbert is a lawyer with Rotorua Community Law. She said there’s a pattern of movement emerging.
“We’re noticing, that while the statistics for emergency housing have dropped, what we are seeing is that particularly single males who are generally placed into backpackers, are now back on our streets,” she said.
Backpackers and guesthouses require consents for any long-term tenancies which most, in Rotorua, don’t have. Mayor Tania Tapsell said that backpacker accommodations, originally set up for short tourist stays, are an ongoing concern for the council.
While private social support services may be placing some of the former motel residents into backpackers, invariably, the residents are receiving MSD financial support.
“So again, we say to the Government. Why is government funding allowing tenancies in places that may not be appropriate for residential development”.
From emergency motel to backpackers to sleeping rough is Joe’s story.
Q+A spoke to him down in the Rotorua CBD while he was on his way to a soup kitchen.
“I’ve been in the emergency housing system for three-plus years,” he said.
“All I can say is it’s a toxic way of living.”
He left the Fenton Street motels earlier this year and was put into a backpackers for three months. It didn’t work out, he said.
He now pushes his belongings in a supermarket trolley around city streets.
“My ideal situation is to get my own space,” he said and regrets that a one-bedroom state housing unit went to someone else when the agency couldn’t locate him.
Across town, 53 Kāinga Ora housing projects are underway or about to be, but 13 planned developments in Rotorua have been paused by the Government.
Tapsell is supportive of the Government’s push toward community providers of social housing and a commitment to end contracted emergency accommodation in Rotorua by December 2025.
Social Housing Minister Tama Potaka said ministries are working hard to determine where people are going once they leave the motels.
Despite those efforts, 20% of those people are still unaccounted for.
Potaka said: “When we arrived in government, we knew where 50% of people were going, and as a result of the hard work of our teams, we now know where nearly 80% are going.
“It’s also very clear from the work that’s been done, over the last few months, that we’re very focussed on tamariki children and their whānau, moving them out of motels as a priority”.
It’s all not good enough, according to Labour’s housing spokesperson.
“Where they’ve gone, if they have found a home, is into a home that the previous government paid for and built. And this Government’s not doing that. What about the ones that haven’t gone into a social home? They don’t know”.
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air
