McDonald's Rotorua franchise owner Rob Parry. Photo / Kelly Makiha
Big reductions in emergency housing only came about because Rotorua got “too noisy” for the Government, Rotorua MP Todd McClay believes.
But Housing Minister Megan Woods says the reduction is thanks to the Government building new housing and working with the community to solve the housing crisis it inherited from National.
The latest Government figures show the number of people in emergency housing has nearly halved from what it was a year ago.
The figures have prompted Fenton St business owners to praise the work being done, with Rotorua McDonald’s franchise owner Rob Parry saying he could now go back to saying “Rotorua is the best city in the world” - something he said he had not been able to say for the last two years.
The latest figures are from the Rotorua Temporary Housing Dashboard for January put out by the Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.
It shows there are still 17 non-Government-contracted motels in Rotorua, 13 contracted motels, two Covid-19 response motels and one transitional housing motel - a total of 33 motels being used for temporary housing in Rotorua.
The numbers started to fall around April last year and fell more sharply from November.
The January figures show there are 216 households in motels run by the housing ministry (including 177 households in contracted emergency housing) and 129 households in other Rotorua motels that offer emergency housing based on a voucher system administered by the Ministry of Social Development. That’s a total of 345 households in emergency housing as of January this year.
In January 2022, there were 327 households in motels run by the Housing Ministry (including 225 households in contracted emergency housing) and 354 households in other Rotorua motels that offer Ministry of Social Development emergency housing.
That means households in all emergency housing types have nearly halved from 681 in January last year to 345 in January this year.
McClay said in his opinion the numbers falling demonstrated “huge numbers” of people were being sent to Rotorua from out-of-town and now they weren’t.
“That is a good thing because now we can focus on our own.”
McClay said it shouldn’t have taken more than two years and for Rotorua to “scream” about the issues linked to using the motels as emergency housing, and he was proud of local residents for speaking out.
“That first public meeting we had [just over two years ago], people expressed their concern about us being a dumping ground for out-of-town homeless. If it wasn’t for people putting in their own time and significant resources into stopping it, this change wouldn’t have happened.
“In the end, the voice of Rotorua became too loud and the Government changed their policy.”
McClay said while the change was positive, there was a lot of work still to do, including repairing Rotorua’s reputation.
He said it was also concerning there were still 17 non-contracted motels in use for emergency housing on top of the 13 contracted motels, as that was a lot of beds not available for visitors to Rotorua during peak weekends.
“It’s not visitors going down to the restaurants and cafes or tourist attractions spending money.”
Housing Minister Megan Woods was asked if she had any response to McClay’s comments and she said: “No, other than that Mr McClay needs to get over his selective amnesia on the role his Government played in selling off or demolishing 42 public houses in Rotorua and its utter failure on housing; problems that this Labour Government is fixing.”
Rotorua mayor Tania Tapsell said the Rotorua Housing Accord - an agreement between Rotorua Lakes Council, the Government and mana whenua - put in writing the wishes of Rotorua residents to end emergency housing in motels.
She said that gave the city a plan and the results so far showed the great progress Rotorua had made in not only pushing back on what was not working but ensuring Rotorua was listened to and taken seriously as a tourism destination and a great place to live.
She said Rotorua’s voice was strong when it said it wanted to stop people from out of town from being placed in motels and it meant those who were in emergency housing and genuinely needed help into homes had been supported.
“I had a discussion with Minister Woods within two weeks of becoming mayor, who appreciated the situation Rotorua was in and I believe she was acting in good faith and was actively changing the system. Those of us on the ground have seen a noticeable difference in the families who have been put in motels and although it’s only a start, it is a good one.”
Tapsell said she and the new council had also insisted on a “stricter” regulatory process to ensure motels that weren’t contracted to the Government were getting the right consent and that process was ongoing.
Parry said they had noticed a big difference from six to 12 months ago and his staff and customers appreciated it.
“There’s been layer upon layer of good news. The NRL rugby league was just amazing, we’ve got the BMX and Crankworx events coming up and APES [Australasian Police and Emergency Services Games] happening this weekend. It makes the city feel alive and how it was.”
Parry said Rotorua wasn’t “out of the woods” but he credited Rotorua Lakes Council for what it had done.
“We had to, it went down so badly so quickly but everyone played their part in improving it. This is the best city in the world and I have said that a lot but couldn’t for the last couple of years.”
Urbano Bistro owner Julie Sewell said Rotorua might struggle to bring back domestic visitors for a while because of the damage to the city’s reputation but it was wonderful to see so many international visitors back and having a great time.
The Rotorua Daily Post asked Ministry of Social Development Bay of Plenty regional commissioner Mike Bryant last month where all the households had gone and if there had been a change of policy to stop out-of-towners being allowed to have emergency housing in Rotorua.
In response, he said there had been a lot of hard work behind the scenes supporting families to move into private rentals, transitional housing, contracted emergency housing or public housing. Changes in the rental market might also have contributed to a reduction of new people coming into emergency housing, as well as an increase in the benefit amount which might have meant more people could afford private rentals, he said.
While he said there had been no policy change regarding people moving to Rotorua emergency housing, ministry staff always asked for “valid and clear reason before any emergency housing support was provided for people to relocate from outside of someone’s region”, Bryant said.
Kāinga Ora built 46 new public homes in Rotorua last year.