Carmen Hall: Housing homeless in motels in Tauranga and Rotorua is a stuff-up that needs fixing

COMMENT

How did we get to this point?

Right now struggling families are holed up in motels, holiday parks and camping grounds in Tauranga and Rotorua with the Government paying millions of dollars for the privilege.

It's a stuff-up that again highlights the housing crisis, bad planning and a country that has too many people and not enough homes. And it's the poor paying the price.

Ministry of Housing and Urban Development figures show from April to June this year it paid $3.3 million to emergency housing providers in Rotorua and $1m in Tauranga.

Read more: Just how much housing Tauranga homeless has cost taxpayers

I wonder how some people would cope trapped in a one-bedroom unit for more than one year with three kids who couldn't go outside because the yard isn't enclosed.

I wonder, if like one young mother told me, they would soon feel depressed and want to hide away from the world.

Then there's the story of seven-months' pregnant mother of one Lily Arabin, who thought about giving up her unborn baby for adoption after having to spend weeks in a Tauranga motel at a cost to the taxpayer of $1300 per week.

But she managed to get into a private rental in Pāpāmoa and could be considered lucky. But is it really lucky in life to pay $510 in rent a week while getting a $230 weekly accommodation supplement like she does?

Tenants in state or public housing usually pay 25 per cent of their income for rent each week and the latest data shows there are 333 applicants in Tauranga and 305 in Rotorua on the waiting list.

Read more: Rotorua family's transition from 'living nightmare' in one-bedroom to state house

The Government says it is doing all it can on the public housing front for the two cities and Housing New Zealand has pledged up to 150 homes in Tauranga and another 32 for Rotorua by 2022.

But this is not enough and the Government needs to put more money into solving this problem.

The only winners at the moment are the motels who through no fault of their own are earning money because some homeless families have nowhere else to live.