Taylor Bateup with his 3-month-old daughter, Kia-Māia Serenity Eden. Photo / Warren Buckland
Taylor Bateup with his 3-month-old daughter, Kia-Māia Serenity Eden. Photo / Warren Buckland
Taylor Bateup and Lahana Eden say living in emergency motel accommodation since February 2019 with their three young children is like "walking on eggshells".
While the full-time mother and soon to be social work student are grateful that they have a place to stay, the reality of living in motelsand looking for housing has been mentally "draining" and made it difficult for the family to settle their children.
Their current motel home, Ace High Motor Inn in Napier, is the best they have been in yet. This is the sixth one they have lived in, and Eden says she feels a lot safer there.
The owners are "really, really lovely", the rooms are clean and hygienic and the other emergency housing residents have also been good.
They describe the overall experience as "stressful".
"You never know if you're going to get kicked out. One day you could be fine, the next you are walking on eggshells," Eden said.
They have made the two-bedroom unit as homely as possible with their own decorations and kids toys but they'll soon be packing it all up to go elsewhere for Labour Weekend before moving back in.
Bateup said they were "freaking out" at first when the residents were given nine days' notice to leave for the holiday weekend but they are going to stay with his family in Levin and Work and Income has been helpful with arrangements.
Motel owner Frank Craig said a visiting football team, which has used the motel for accommodation for 26 years, made the booking for the weekend a year ago.
The owners want people to "feel better" while they were at the motel and knew Work and Income would make it as easy as possible for residents over the weekend, he said.
It's not the first time the couple have been given notice to leave a motel, but they're glad this time they can come back after the weekend.
When living in a previous motel they were given three hours' notice to leave after their 4-year-old son pulled a command hook off the wall, accidentally chipping the paint, they say.
Another motel they requested to be moved from as they felt it was so unsafe. Eden was being harassed
, she said.
They believed it was also having an impact on their children.
After living in a studio room motel then moving into one with separate bedrooms, the children "screamed the house down looking for us" as they were in a separate room to their parents.
Their 6-year-old daughter has asthma and eczema and previous mouldy accommodation has concerned them. It's another factor in them wanting their own home.
Napier's Bluewater Hotel Ltd received $453,535 as an emergency accommodation supplier in March-June this year. Photo / File
"She needs her own breathing space, cause if my son gets sick, she gets sick too and, when she gets sick, she gets really sick."
Their daughter had been to three schools before she turned 6 and their son two kohanga. Going from school to school has had an impact on their daughter: "It's just confusing for her brain."
In other motels they have heard people screaming, seen police showing up, and worry that the children are seeing it too and what effect this will have.
Bateup says the children are "learning suffering" with the changes. Raising a newborn in a motel had also been "hard" and "stressful".
Because of rules around not having overnight guests, it can be difficult for mums when they come home from the hospital not being able to have family stay,
he said.
Eden's main concern raising children in a motel is who the neighbours are and their surroundings, whether or not they are safe.
Bateup raised the issue that there's nowhere for children to play.
"You kind of just give up looking for rentals because it's so hard, you're competing with professional people and hundreds of them, it's just really stressful."
Ministry of Social Development regional director Naomi Whitewood said when people come to them with an urgent need for housing, the ministry supports them to find a place to stay.
"We don't want people sleeping rough or in their cars. Our aim is for our clients to move into a private rental or public housing whenever possible. A person's priority rating on the social housing register is based on need.
Whitewood said they have worked with the family supporting them into emergency and then transitional housing with full, wraparound support by its housing partner, Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga.
Demand for public housing is currently high with 661 applicants on the housing register in Napier alone as at June 2020.
An applicant's ranking on the register depends on a set of criteria that reflect their level of need rather than how long they have been on the list. How quickly they are housed depends both on their need and what is available that matches that need.
Last week, Hawke's Bay Today revealed emergency housing accommodation suppliers in Hawke's Bay were paid nearly $3 million in a three-month period that included the Covid-19 lockdown.
The Ministry of Social Development said it spent $2.84m on rooms in Bay motels, hotels and holiday parks from March to June to house more than 500 homeless.
The highest earner over the three months - Bluewater Hotel Ltd - received $453,535. The second-highest earner was Hastings Top 10 Holiday Park, earning $273,256.
