RotoVegas Motel is one of the motels on Fenton Street in Rotorua that was being used for emergency accommodation in 2022. Photo: Google Maps
Rotorua residents are desperate and despondent as a hearing gets underway on Tuesday to decide the fate of seven emergency housing motels in the city.
The homeless accommodation was due to end next month but the government wants to stagger withdrawal of contracted emergency housing over another year.
Opponents say increased crime including drug use, domestic violence, thefts, an even arson are the result of converting the city's tourist accommodation to emergency housing.
Since Covid-19 lockdowns first prompted the government to move homeless people into motels to stop the spread of the virus, emergency housing had ballooned to a $1 million-a-day burden on taxpayers.
But Rotorua was the only city where contracted emergency housing was provided, through 13 motels whose units were used exclusively by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.
Consents were granted in December 2022 with conditions limiting the duration to two years instead of the five initially sought by the Ministry.
Three motels have now exited the scheme and the Ministry said it was in the process of exiting another three, leaving the seven it sought to extend contracts for.
Last time the issue went to a hearing in October 2022, more than 3500 submitters opposed the applications.
This time Rotorua Lakes Council received 176 submissions, with all but one against.
In one of those submissions, the operators of the Whakarewarewa Living Māori Village said the iconic tourism business was plagued by disruptive and threatening behaviour from the residents of three nearby emergency housing motels.
General manager Dr Tanya Robinson said tourists and staff at the village must make their way through a carpark over-run with drug dealing, prostitution, and human excrement.
"The unsanitary and biologically unsafe refuse that is left behind frequently is a danger to our villagers, staff and visitors," she wrote.
"Our staff have regularly been confronted by drug use and inappropriate or threatening behaviour in this area."
She said staff regularly required police, mental health and drug safety support to deal with illegal activity in the carpark.
Donnarae Raukawa-Doughty said she was forced to close her art gallery next to the village 18 months ago after customers dried up, artists refused to leave pieces there or hold exhibitions, and private functions were cancelled.
She was unable to tenant an attached two-bedroom apartment, and said the financial and emotional impact was substantial.
Carolyne Hall, of lobby group Restore Rotorua, said businesses were struggling under increased crime which was damaging the city's reputation as a tourism destination.
"It's really hard for them because they're up between a rock and a hard place because they want the reputation to come back, but you can't get it back unless you stop what's happening.
"You can't stand up and speak about what's happening in your backyard without there being some sort of consequence to that so people shut up because they still want the people to come."
Hall said the huge drop in submissions this time was because residents had lost faith in the system.
"The people we've contacted to see if they will give submissions again said 'Oh what's the point?'
"They stood up there, they spewed their heart and soul out in public, telling their stories and some of them were heartbreaking, and they don't wanna do that again.
"Like why would you do that again?"
Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers chairperson Reynold Macpherson was against the extensions but said his group would boycott the hearing.
Macpherson said law and order had deteriorated significantly since emergency housing was set up in the city.
"The biggest problem we have is that until these emergency accommodation provisions in our motels are closed down our tourist economy will not really recover to anything like it was before, and there'll be no end to the crime surge that's been associated with the arrival of homeless people in Rotorua."
Both Macpherson and Hall believed many in need of urgent housing were imported from outside the city, which had a dedicated hub for triaging homeless whānau.
A group of 11 hoteliers said they had witnessed a rise in thefts, drug and alcohol abuse, and domestic violence and feared emergency housing would continue indefinitely.
In a submission for the hearing expert planner Jo Healy said while contracted emergency housing did not cause anti-social behaviour it did, by nature of its operation and number of residents, increase the likelihood of exposure to those events.
She said contracted emergency housing (CEH) provided positive social impacts for users who needed stability, shelter and support services.
"If CEH was not provided for this would have negative impacts on CEH residents and is likely to increase demand for Emergency Housing Special Needs Grants from Ministry of Social Development which in my view have greater adverse social impacts than CEH."
Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell said the city was on its way to being rid of motel homes.
"What we're seeing here is the end of what has been a really difficult time in Rotorua with emergency housing motels. We're almost at the end.
"These contracted motels are applying for only 12 more months."
She said the government had already signalled it wanted to reduce emergency housing to four motels next year.
Tapsell said there was now a clear exit plan and an ongoing reduction in emergency housing.
She said if residents still had concerns they should participate in the hearing process.
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