Rotorua Lakes Council chief executive Geoff Williams. Photo / Andrew Warner
People wanting emergency housing in Rotorua are now being “carefully screened” by Government agencies to ensure they are from Rotorua or have family in Rotorua, the city’s council boss says.
The revelation came at a Rotorua Lakes Council meeting this week. Chief executive Geoff Williams said the undertaking was given by the Government when Rotorua mayor Tania Tapsell signed the Rotorua Housing Accord in December.
Government agencies and politicians have always said emergency housing was available to anyone in need and denied allegations Rotorua was being used as a “dumping ground” for out-of-town homeless.
Williams was speaking at the council’s district development committee meeting, where an update on the Rotorua Housing Accord was given by council staff.
It was noted there had been a big reduction in households in emergency housing, now released in monthly dashboards by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, since the signing of the accord.
Councillor Don Paterson asked where people were coming from.
In response, Williams suggested there had been a change since the signing of the Rotorua Housing Accord - an agreement signed in December last year by Tapsell, Housing Minister Megan Woods and iwi representatives.
The accord sought to renew commitments for better housing outcomes in Rotorua and aimed to reduce the number of emergency housing motels to “near zero”.
Williams told the meeting: “When Mayor Tapsell signed the accord there was an undertaking made by Government they would carefully screen and ensure that only people from Rotorua were coming into emergency housing”.
Rotorua’s emergency housing figures have been steadily reducing since peak periods in March last year and have sharply reduced since October last year.
In March last year, there were 708 households in emergency housing - both contracted and non-contracted motels. In February this year, that number had dropped to 375 households.
The figures show there are still 16 non-contracted emergency housing motels, well down from the peak of 62 motels at the start of last year. There are also still two Covid-19 response motels operating (Tuscany Villas and Four Canoes Hotel) and one transitional housing motel, which the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development won’t name.
Williams said the council had been monitoring the figures closely and only in the latest reported figures had there been a small increase.
“We have got the undertaking from Government agencies to say that they are carefully screening and looking at circumstances and only ensuring that people who are here have got a legitimate need to be here. They are either from here or have a connection with whānau here.”
The Rotorua Daily Post asked Housing Minister Megan Woods, Social Development Minister Priyanca Radhakrishnan (who now has the portfolio for emergency housing) and the Ministry of Social Development this year if the reason for the big reduction in emergency housing numbers in Rotorua was a result of stricter checks to ensure out-of-towners were no longer coming to Rotorua’s motels.
Woods referred the questions to Radhakrishnan and the ministry and Radhakrishnan referred the question to the ministry.
The Rotorua Daily Post asked Ministry of Social Development Bay of Plenty regional commissioner Mike Bryant in February 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.
At the time he did not answer whether there had been a change to stop people coming from out of town.
Instead, he said 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”.
The Rotorua Daily Post asked Bryant to respond to Williams’ comments this week, specifically that Williams suggested something had changed since the signing of the accord.
In a written response, Bryant said: “Our policy continues to be that we require a valid and clear reason before any emergency housing support is provided for people to relocate from outside of their region”.
“We have always disagreed with the view that the problem is caused by people moving to Rotorua. As we have outlined to you in previous responses, there have been significant improvements over time to the processes and supports around accessing emergency accommodation in Rotorua. This includes strengthening the process and practices to better support people in need.”
He said the ministry continued to work with its partners at Te Pokapū (Housing Hub), to ensure emergency housing policy was applied consistently and carefully and assessments for emergency housing support were carried out in accordance with its policy.
“This predates the Housing Accord.”
Bryant said staff had been increased to work closely with clients and assess their needs and what support they required to find accommodation.
“As we’ve said earlier, there has been a lot of hard work behind the scenes supporting families to move out of emergency housing by securing private rentals, transitional housing, contracted emergency housing, or public housing. Changes in the rental market are another driver of demand and numbers do fluctuate from time to time.”