Contracts extended for two Rotorua emergency housing motels used for Covid-19 response purposes

Covid 19-response motels Four Canoes Hotel (left) and Tuscany Villas on Fenton St in Rotorua. Photo / Andrew Warner

The Government has extended contracts for two Rotorua emergency housing motels to keep operating under the Covid-19 response umbrella.

Tuscany Villas and Four Canoes Hotel, both on Fenton St, have been contracted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to offer emergency housing since March 2020.

The contracts were to expire on June 30, but the ministry confirmed to the Rotorua Daily Post this week Tuscany Villas’ contract had been extended by another year, while Four Canoes Hotel’s contract has been extended by another four weeks.

The contract for a transitional housing motel, which the ministry refuses to name, had also been extended for another year.

The two hotels, along with Emerald Spa Motel, also on Fenton, were set up to house the city’s most vulnerable after Rotorua went into the first Covid-19 Level 4 lockdown in March 2020.

Last year, Emerald Spa stopped being a Covid-19 response motel and instead became one of 13 motels that successfully sought resource consent to operate as emergency housing motels.

Ministry partnerships and performance general manager William Barris said the ministry extended the contract for the Four Canoes for up to four weeks to allow time for the small number of remaining people to be transitioned into other accommodations.

The hotel was recently the subject of a Fire and Emergency New Zealand report that said death or injury was likely at the hotel if a fire broke out given fire safety failings.

He said the ministry extended the contract with Tuscany Villas and the transitional housing motel for one year to June 30, 2024 to ensure people staying there could be supported into longer-term accommodation.

He said the ministry continued contracts with some motels across New Zealand which were originally sourced as part of the Covid-19 response to ensure people remained safely housed.

There were 15 adults and six children living in the transitional housing motel and 27 adults and 15 children living in the two Covid-19 response motels.

Emergency housing numbers

The latest figures on the number of people living in emergency housing motels show the numbers have dipped slightly from April to May.

The ministry publishes the figures monthly as part of the Rotorua Housing Accord agreement signed by the Government and Rotorua Lakes Council.

There are six fewer people living in temporary housing in Rotorua, with 690 (378 adults and 312 children) in May compared with 696 (390 adults and 306 children) in April.

There are 213 adults and 246 children in contracted emergency housing and 123 adults and 45 children in non-contracted emergency housing motels.

Māori make up 79 per cent of those in emergency housing. 26 per cent are European and 5 per cent are from the Pacific Islands.

The number of motels offering emergency housing dropped from 30 to 28. This includes two fewer non-contracted emergency housing motels, with the number dropping from 14 to 12 from May to April. There remain 13 contracted emergency housing motels, two Covid-19 response motels and one transitional housing motel.

Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.