More than 30 people - many with high-needs drug addictions and mental health issues - were living at the Four Canoes Hotel under a government contract put in place as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.
Four Canoes Hotel is one of two accommodation outlets in Rotorua contracted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development under the Covid-19 response umbrella. They operate similarly to the 13 contracted emergency housing motels, and have social service agencies running them.
Lifewise took over running Four Canoes last year but Barrett, originally from Rotorua, immediately removed her staff for health and safety reasons. At the time, Lifewise said the facilities weren’t appropriate for people with complex issues, with problems including the several exits and non-shatterproof windows.
Housing Minister Megan Woods said last August that Four Canoes had been formally notified that it needed to make improvements to the fire prevention systems on-site.
Rotorua Lakes Council at the time issued the building owner a Dangerous Building Notice and a Notice to Fix, although people were still able to live there. The hotel is still under a ministry contract.
Barrett told today’s conference from her perspective: “I shut down the Four Canoes here last year. Not fit for purpose for my people ... You come and clean this up or you sleep in it”.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development was approached for comment on Barrett’s statements about the conditions of the Four Canoes Hotel.
William Barris, partnerships and performance general manager, said in a statement that client safety and welfare continued to be a priority.
“A small number of clients remain at the Four Canoes Hotel while we finalise alternative accommodation for them.
“HUD monitors contracted accommodation facilities on an ongoing basis while working with providers to resolve problems which are identified.”
At the conference today, Barrett drove home how homelessness rates spiralled in Rotorua when Covid-19 struck, and how she knew the figures because her organisation physically did a head count before the pandemic.
“We were under 100 then ... 2500 three years later, 2500 Rotorua. So we got motels and put them in motels.
“We cautioned: Three months and it’s over. You have to start staging out, putting in supports, putting in triage, we can do it all. That was three years ago.”
“It’s time for the action. Because we can’t, in three years, have those numbers. We can’t. A majority of those numbers are mental health and addiction. The pain is attributed by generational trauma, we know this.”
She said Māori were constantly advocating for their people and it was fitting Te Arawa was hosting this year’s conference.
“We have been painted as a place of emergency housing. Once known for our tourism, and all of a sudden known for the second-highest homelessness. That is not who we are.”
Barrett told the story of how she was a receptionist at Rotorua Hospital’s emergency department, working the night shift because she thought it would be “cruisy”.
But her world changed when a local Māori family came in “wailing” with their baby who had died from cot death.
Her focus was finding them somewhere to “go” within the hospital and this ignited her passion for housing.
“Now that receptionist is a CEO of a white organisation.”
Barrett said she used her Māori voice for her people in what she described as a “broken system”.
“Workforce capacity and capability” were key and Barrett wasn’t ashamed to say most of her staff were whānau who had lived experience.
“Gone are the days when you need the level fours to get in ... homelessness is real. That’s just the label of it. This is around our people and everything they experience.”
Woods addressed the conference, detailing what the Government was doing nationally and in Rotorua to turn the tables for Māori struggling to get housing.
She mentioned the “unprecedented” funding the Government was investing, proving it was “putting our money where our mouth is” and ensuring Māori were “in the driving seat”.
She acknowledged public housing organisation Kāinga Ora which often “got a hard time” because it was “daring to do something called building state houses in New Zealand”.
She said the Government had built more state houses than any previous government, since Norm Kirk was the Labour party leader in the 1970s.
In Rotorua, she said there were 350 public homes under construction - significant given 42 state homes were lost in the city under the previous National government.
She spoke of the Rotorua Housing Accord signed last year with the Rotorua Lakes Council and iwi, and detailed every Government programme and dollar amount that was being spent to either work with Māori on housing programmes or speed up building and improve infrastructure in Rotorua.
Barrett reiterated the housing crisis was decades in the making and there wasn’t just one solution - partnerships were the key.
“We are well on the way. We are starting to see those hopeful green shoots of change.”
Māori Development Minister Willie Jackson paid tribute to Woods, saying many probably did not think it was possible for a Pākehā to deliver a “by Māori for Māori” solution.
“But she has.”
Jackson reiterated the Government had inherited the housing crisis, saying it came in after a National Government that sold state houses and didn’t support Māori partnerships.
He said he “didn’t mean to be disrespectful of previous governments” but this Government had a strong iwi housing kaupapa with strong partnerships and it was working.
National Associate Housing spokesman Tama Potaka responded to the criticisms about his Government selling off state housing.
“We will not plan for whānau to be in state housing for life.”
He touched on emergency housing woes, saying it wasn’t good enough the Government was spending $1 million a day on motels.
“Fenton St is now a racing track for Pak’nSave trolleys.”
He said the numbers would grow if people didn’t “get on the tools”.
He said National would bring down the cost of building homes and eliminate the need for emergency housing.
The conference ends tomorrow.
