Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The government is celebrating the end of emergency housing motels in Rotorua - but Labour says it has just shifted the problem elsewhere.
Rotorua became the country's epicentre for emergency housing.
At its peak, there were more than 240 households across 13 motels. Now there are zero families in motels.
Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka, who holds responsibility for the emergency housing portfolio, said Rotorua had become the "poster child" of a broken housing system, and its end reflected "deliberate, coordinated action".
In 2023, National campaigned on ending emergency housing in Rotorua motels within two years.
"Rotorua whānau, businesses and mana whenua had been pleading for change for years. We listened and acted. We have restored safety, dignity and confidence to a city that was forced to absorb the consequences of a failed housing model," Potaka said.
Referrals into emergency housing motels ended on 15 June with agencies working "intensively" to secure permanent placements.
The Ministry for Social Development and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development had worked with Visions of a Helping Hand, WERA Aotearoa Charitable Trust, Emerge Aotearoa, Ngāti Whakaue, Te Arawa, Restore Rotorua and the Rotorua Lakes Council to move every household into "stable, secure homes".
Through partnership with Ngāti Whakaue, 240 affordable rental housing units were being built at Manawa Gardens.
The remaining motels were now preparing to return to commercial operations, Potaka said.
"Rotorua is finally back on the front foot, it is safer, stronger, and open for growth. Our government will keep backing Rotorua to reclaim its reputation, grow its tourism economy, strengthen its housing supply, and unlock new opportunities for the city," Potaka said.
But Labour's housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said the announcement was "tone deaf" and he did not know who Potaka was "trying to kid" by celebrating.
Labour's housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
"No one is pretending that emergency housing was the solution to the housing crisis, but it's a hell of a lot better than people sleeping on the streets. And all the minister is doing today is celebrating shifting people out of emergency housing to in front of families' homes and businesses. That's it, and it's not much of a thing to celebrate."
McAnulty said he had recently visited Rotorua and counted eight homeless people in one block of the town centre.
In January, Potaka announced the government had met its target to reduce the overall number of households in emergency housing by 75 percent five years early.
The Ministry of Social Development had also tightened the gateway for those trying to access emergency housing.
McAnulty said the government was focusing on people that had left emergency housing but did not want to talk about the people that could not get in.
"Emergency housing was only ever intended to temporarily house people while social houses were being built. But let's look at what the government are doing. Kāinga Ora are no longer expanding their numbers. The funding that's gone to community housing providers is a fraction of what they were getting under the Labour government, and people can't get into emergency housing, and now they've closed them all together," he said.
"It's no surprise that homelessness is now what frontline providers are saying the worst in living memory."
Potaka said people "chose" to leave the motels, which he described as "difficult, dangerous, dark, and dank" situations.
"Bleak? That's an understatement. It was absolutely outrageous. There's no better way to kill the potential of young children than to push them and herd them into hotels like animals. That's not a fair way to raise a child."
He admitted, as he has previously, that people were under no obligation to tell the government or providers where they were going.
It means the government does not have a full picture of where people go after leaving emergency housing.
"For the most part, people go to social, private, and transitional housing. We know that because that's tracked through the system. But there's some people we don't know where they are. They may have been in emergency motels, they may have been elsewhere. There are people who have been on the streets for many, many years," Potaka said.
A "social disaster" - Rotorua mayor
Rotorua Lakes mayor Tania Tapsell said the whole community had been affected by emergency housing, and it was great to see the end.
"Honestly, these emergency housing motels were the worst social disaster we've probably ever experienced here in Rotorua. It was really tough for our community, and our community pushed back, and we're very grateful that the government answered the call," she said.
Tapsell said it was "heartbreaking" that children were living in the motels.
She admitted there were still around ten to fifteen people sleeping on the streets at any given time, and that some had had to be trespassed.
She believed homelessness was, at its core, a health issue.
"Without a doubt, there's drug and alcohol addiction issues there, and although at times when we have had to trespass them, this has been because for months, we tried to assist them, connecting with social services or emergency accommodation. And you know what? It's really had an impact on our local economy, on our confidence, which is why we're so happy now that we do have those long-term solutions."
Those long-term solutions include working with government agencies like health and education, as well as working with government and iwi to build what Tapsell said was a "record amount" of affordable rentals.
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