More public housing is being built in Hawke's Bay but the Government is finding it hard to keep up with demand. Photo / NZME
More public housing is being built in Hawke's Bay but the Government is finding it hard to keep up with demand. Photo / NZME
Taxpayers are now paying an average of $10 million every three months to cover emergency housing costs in Hawke's Bay and Gisborne.
A housing advocate says the biggest factor forcing people into motels is the "extremely high" rental prices across the region and a lack of rentals and public housing.
The Ministry of Housing says it is "working at scale and pace" to address the problem and get people out of motels and into warm, dry homes.
A new Ministry of Housing report revealed that during the last quarter of 2021, a record $10.7 million in Government grants was paid out for emergency housing in the East Coast region, which covers urgent accommodation mainly in participating motels.
Those grants supported 707 households during that time. The bulk of the grants ($6.3m) was for the Napier and Hastings area .
Comparatively, $8m in grants was spent in 2020 (helping 649 households), $4m was spent in 2019 (helping 431 households), and $1m was spent in 2018 (helping 236 households), for the corresponding quarter across the East Coast.
"There is a variety of reasons why people are being forced into emergency accommodation," Napier Housing Coalition co-ordinator Dawn Bedingfield said.
"That ranges from a shortage of rental housing, addiction problems, and mainly the extremely high rents."
She said, sadly, too many people could not afford a rental on a modest budget in Hawke's Bay and ended up in emergency motels, including the likes of solo mums.
"To me this is such an unfair system and women and children are sometimes the ones in emergency accommodation waiting on the private sector or in between private rentals," Bedingfield said.
The waiting list for permanent public housing has quadrupled over the past four years and has reached a record high across the East Coast region (Hawke's Bay and Gisborne).
According to the latest data, there are now 2313 households on the Housing Register who have been deemed eligible for permanent public housing but are on the wait list.
The Government has been building more public homes in Hawke's Bay but it is struggling to keep up with high demand.
"It is very obvious from the amount [of people] on the waiting list ... that not enough public homes are being built," Bedingfield said.
Napier Housing Coalition co-ordinator Dawn Bedingfield says a shortage of rental housing, addiction problems, and mainly "extremely" high rents are driving the housing crisis. Photo / Paul Taylor
She claimed the current time from when an applicant makes it onto the waiting list until moving into a home was years not months.
However, the Ministry of Housing says the national waiting time to be housed is 234 days, once on the Housing Register.
A Ministry of Housing spokesman said a lot of work was being done to build more public homes in Hawke's Bay.
"In the East North Island there is a very real and urgent need to get families and children out of motels and other forms of emergency housing, and into more secure homes where they can move forward with their lives.
"Kāinga Ora is working at scale and pace to meet the demand for more warm, dry and healthy homes."
In Hastings and Napier, that includes 198 public homes and 46 transitional homes currently under construction, plus plenty more in the planning stages, the spokesman said.
"In November 2021, eight new public homes were completed in Waipukurau. There are plans for more public housing in Central Hawkes Bay."
There are currently 4225 public homes across the East Coast region, which is up from 4015 four years ago.
Accommodation NZ, which is part of Hospitality NZ, spokesman Troy Clarry said as tourism picked up more accommodation providers would look to go back to offering traditional accommodation, as opposed to emergency housing.
"Most definitely that will be a pattern that happens."
He said that might mean more providers offering "mixed" accommodation or stopping offering emergency housing altogether.
"[Some providers] are still sitting on the border saying I don't mind having five or six rooms for [emergency housing] but we will start to open up to tourists."
He said it was a concern both for tourists needing a place to stay and for people in emergency housing.
He said some accommodation providers had converted completely to emergency housing and would not switch back.
"For say $200 per night [to offer an emergency housing room] times say 15 rooms, that is more money than any normal motel would make running traditionally."
