Karekare Road in Karekare, West Auckland on 19 July 2023 where damage from the January flood is still very evident. Photo: RNZ / Rayssa Almeida
Homeowners of flood-damaged properties in the west Auckland Karekare of Karekare say the new fund for displaced residents brings a sigh of relief.
Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced an interim payment to support those who had to move into rental properties and have been relying on insurance payments to cover their rent, whilst bearing the costs of their damaged homes.
Available from 4 September, the payment will be made weekly and directly to homeowners who had to move out of their high-risk properties.
Back in February, David Monroe saw half of his house crumble to a slip.
"Our entire bedroom wing was yellow-stickered because of a slip that went within millimetres of the house itself.
"In the middle of the night ... suddenly the nikau trees were rushing past the bedroom window and we got out of there and went to a safer part of the house, where we're still having to stay because there's been no progress since the cyclone in terms of what we need to do to get the yellow sticker removed."
He said the announcement brought a sigh of relief.
"We're lucky, we were able to move to another part of the house, so we're not paying rent.
"But the people at Piha, they invented this term the 'homeless mortgage', so they are paying a mortgage on a house that they can't access or live in, and paying rent as well, so the announcement today will go a long way to relieve the stress on those people."
A slip on Karekare Road. Photo: RNZ / Rayssa Almeida
Amber Rhodes recalled the day she had to leave her cottage in Karekare.
"It was still daylight and we heard a thud and the house started to be pushed off its hill-side foundations by a mud slide.
"My husband, my daughter and myself ran out of the house as it was sort of crumbling beneath our feet and it was gone, it was destroyed in about 30 seconds."
Her family had to moved out of Karekare and she said the fund would take away the financial pressure on those living on temporary homes.
"The announcement made today should go someway to mitigate the fear of financial pressures for the foreseeable future.
"It will be a long journey, and I don't think that we can expect everything to be fixed immediately," Rhodes said.
Another west Auckland resident, Caroline Bell-Booth, has been in temporary accommodation since her Muriwai home was red-stickered following the extreme weather events.
Bell-Booth was at today's announcement and said she was 60 percent delighted with the news.
"The reason I'm 60 percent delighted is that what I'm entitled to will cover 60 percent of my rent, so that's certainly not bad, I would categorise it more as 'meh' than as 100 percent bad."
Bell-Booth said she was confused about the equation the government used to determine what it cost to live in Muriwai.
Rental properties in Muriwai generally cost about $300 per room per house, which would only entitle her and her husband to get back 60 percent of the house they were renting, she said.
A buy-out would be the best option but she needed facts so she could make choices which would allow her to move on, Bell-Booth said.
"Until I have those facts about what the categorisation of my house is and indeed what the valuation of that house is because one without the other essentially means nothing, then I continue to stay in the state of limbo of 60 percent satisfaction while I slowly tread water and very slowly sink financially."
Sir Bob Harvey has patrolled the wild surf at Karekare Beach for 66 years.
He said the fund boost would help calm the hearts of those waiting to hear about the future of their homes.
"The stress on people here in this local community, and their mental health to me are major issues. They feel isolated, and they have felt I think forgotten.
"They haven't been forgotten, but council could have been a little bit more attentive to their wants and needs."
He said an official answer to the community was long overdue.
"Politicians have come here and have said 'I'm sorry, I can't answer that, I'm unsure'.
"They [the residents] just wanted an answer, even a 'no' is an answer, but these people haven't had a yes or a no, and it's now July.
"They just wanted and needed someone to reach out and give them some guidance, some timelines," Harvey said.
The payment will be set at 100 percent of the average rent declared by Accommodation Supplement recipients in the region.
In the Auckland region, a family of four people in temporary accommodation will get $610 per week to cover their rent.
In Hawke's Bay, the amount drops to $510, while for a Gisborne family of four, the support would be $460.
Sepuloni said the payment would help bridge the gap until repairs were done or a decision was made on the future of their properties.
"We can't respond to all of the impacts or all of the issues today but we can provide some certainty around financial support for those that have costs for their own homes as well as rental and their insurance is running out or has run out.
"After picking up the Auckland portfolio, I prioritised visiting areas impacted by the extreme weather events. Having talked informally to many residents, it's clear that they need and deserve certainty so that they can plan, recover, and get back to a sense of normality," Sepuloni said.
The fund will be funded via a fiscally neutral transfer of $10 million from the Vote Building and Construction appropriation to Vote Social Development in the 2023/24 financial year.
For eligible owners, the payment can be backdated to as early as 1 June.
Displaced residents can contact the Ministry of Social Development from 21 August to book an appointment.
