Auckland City Mission fears homeless will be displaced from accommodation as tourism and workers return to central city

There are just 30 to 40 rough sleepers in Auckland's central city - but that could be about to change. Photo / Dean Purcell

Motel owners filled their rooms with homeless people during the Covid-19 pandemic, some of them making millions from generous Government grants. But the return of tourism means they may no longer have room for them.

The number of rough sleepers in Auckland's central city is likely to rise as they are displaced from temporary accommodation by returning workers, tourists and students, NGOs say.

The Auckland City Mission said the number of people living on the street was still relatively low because of an extraordinary multi-agency effort two years ago to provide shelter to nearly every rough sleeper during the first Covid-19 lockdown.

But while some had been shifted into permanent homes - including the City Mission's newly opened HomeGround building - most were still in motels, apartments and hostels which were freed up when New Zealand's borders closed.

"The more the borders open up, the more motels that have been providing emergency housing have alternative customers," City Missioner Helen Robinson told the Herald.

"I'm not expecting a particularly easy ride. I wouldn't be surprised if in a year the rough sleeping numbers had increased dramatically."

City Missioner Helen Robinson expects a rise in homelessness as tourists, workers and students increase demand for accommodation in the central city: "I'm not expecting a particularly easy ride."

Emergency housing tenants must re-apply to stay in their motel rooms every week or two, and their hosts have no legal obligation to provide secure, long-term shelter.

"Private businesses are entitled to take in whoever they want," said Peter Shimwell, community services manager at Lifewise NZ, which works with rough sleepers in the central city. He noted that some moteliers may want to continue with emergency housing because it was steady business and paid well.

"Quite a lot of moteliers have done quite well out of the housing crisis [during the pandemic] because the occupancy has increased," he said.

Owners sometimes charge a premium for emergency housing referrals, partly because of urgent demand but also because of the potential for damage or disruption.

Lifewise had not yet seen anyone displaced by tourists or workers, but Shimwell agreed it was a risk.

Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni said her ministry was watching the situation closely. Ministry of Social Development (MSD) officials expected the number of motel rooms available for emergency housing to fall when the international border opened.

But there had been no immediate moves by large numbers of motels to shift away from emergency housing, she said.

"While some moteliers may begin to shift back towards tourism over time, we also expect that a number will continue to offer emergency housing."

Suresh Chatly, whose company owns several motels, said his business would have "gone broke" during the pandemic without emergency housing tenants.

At one point his company made up to $300,000 a month in MSD grants, records from 2020 show. Chatly said that unlike some others, he charged the same rate for all guests - about $190 a night for a couple - and had no problems with homeless families who had stayed with him.

Chatly said he had planned to return to booking tourists and school trips when the borders opened up further, but for now would keep taking homeless because business was relatively slow.

"We wouldn't say no," he said.

Another motel owner, based in the central city, said they would stop taking homeless when tourism picked up because it was "less disruptive".

Robinson, the City Missioner, said there were now between 30 and 40 rough sleepers in the central city.

That figure masked the broader homeless rate, she said. About 1100 households are in Government-funded motel rooms in Auckland. Another 2300 are in transitional housing, which lasts for 12 weeks but is often extended. They are among 26,800 waiting for public housing. And there are many more who aren't captured in official statistics because they are living on couches, garages or in boarding houses.

"We transferred need indoors," said Robinson "And transferred it to dwellings that are not permanent houses."

Motels are one step better than sleeping on the street and provide shelter while more permanent homes are found. But they are far from ideal accommodation. They are insecure, they don't usually come with wraparound support, and are eye-wateringly expensive, now costing the Government about $30 million a month.

"Whatever permanent house that we can create or build, that's what we want," Robinson said. "The answer to homelessness is not emergency housing, it is not transitional housing, it is permanent housing and lots of it, now."

The Government has significantly increased public housing and transitional housing in the past five years, but it cannot keep pace with demand. In March, Kainga Ora placed 546 households in public housing, while another 1893 joined the waiting list.

The Government has secured long-term contracts with 13 motels, all in Rotorua, as part of a trial which will inform whether more contracts should be signed. The trial is part of a review which is expected to be released in the next month or two.

"Nationwide we are grateful to moteliers that choose to provide emergency housing when they can," Sepuloni said.

"Motels are not a long-term answer for housing," she added. "They are a short-term response in a housing crisis."

Shimwell, from Lifewise, said many of the people who his organisation had desperately rushed into emergency housing two years ago were still in the same place.

"They haven't actually got closer to long-term, permanent accommodation. Some have, off the Housing Register or through Housing First, but the CBD still has a lot of very vulnerable people in short-term living situations."