Cyclone Gabrielle: Temporary housing service kicks in for thousands with homes ruined by cyclone in regions

A Government service to find alternative housing for the thousands facing a long wait for their own homes to be repaired after Cyclone Gabrielle has kicked in from Northland to Hawkes Bay this morning.

Housing Minister Megan Woods said the Temporary Accommodation Service - which houses people while their own homes are rebuilt - would now be on offer for those in Northland, Gisborne, Bay of Plenty, Hawke’s Bay, Waikato and the Tararua District.

It was already activated in Auckland after the pre-cyclone flooding, and Woods said it was estimated that about 1200 to 1800 households in Auckland alone would need temporary accommodation while their own homes are repaired or rebuilt.

Numbers across the other regions could be well in excess of that - last week it was estimated about 10,000 had been displaced by the cyclone, although for some it would be short term while others would continue to choose to stay with family or friends.

People can register on the TAS website here or by calling 0508 754 163.

Woods said it might it might take some time for the service to be able to offer everyone a place because of the magnitude of the disaster.

“The severity and close timing of these weather events means that TAS is having to stand-up its largest and fastest responses to date,” Woods said.

“TAS has been scaling up, preparing and planning to meet this response but with a natural disaster of this magnitude affecting so many households and so much infrastructure, this may take time.”

She said the options for accommodation included hotels, motels, motor lodges, and portable accommodation, as happened following the Christchurch and Kaikoura earthquakes, the West Coast flooding in July 2021 and Nelson/Marlborough floods of August last year.

The accommodation usually comes at a cost to those requiring it, which could be covered by insurance where a policy provides for it.

The accommodation service is operated by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and is activated after a natural disaster to find alternative accommodation for people while their homes are rebuilt or repaired.

Last week, TAS national manager, Al Bruce, told the Herald it had started preparing for the “unprecedented” event by scoping vacant residential housing and other accommodation - from rentals to baches, motels and Airbnbs.

However, the scale around Tairawhiti and Hawke’s Bay could also mean constructing temporary “villages” of modular housing, or relocated tiny homes and cabins.

It was in the process of upscaling and training new people to meet the demand.

The numbers registering for the service will give the Government a clearer picture of just how many people are displaced and homes needing rebuilding or repairs.

Speaking in Tairawhiti on Sunday, Robertson said finding housing for those who had no home was a “massive priority”.

“People can only stay with their friends and relatives for so long. We’ve done the assessments and we are working our way through that.”

Finance Minister Grant Robertson says that Civil Defence payments are to help with immediate problems, such as clothing. Photo / Mark Mitchell

With thousands displaced, Robertson said in many regions - including Auckland - there was a housing shortage which could require “innovative” solutions.

“So we are having to be creative about that, using every single dwelling house we can as well as starting to think about more innovative solutions such as forms of modular housing and other temporary sorts of housing. It is right at the top of our welfare needs.”

Robertson also said one of the priorities for the new Brian Roche-led taskforce would be to look at the longer-term issues, including insurance.

He said climate change had “deeply challenged” the traditional insurance model and the way risk should be measured. Roche was bringing together a sub-group on insurance to look at that, and the uninsured.

He said those insurance companies would need to make decisions within the next month on whether some areas should be rebuilt in the way they were, and a consistent framework was needed for that in the future.

On the uninsured, he said while many businesses would have insurance, some had let it lapse during Covid-19.

“We are acutely aware there is an issue there. Then there is the issue of contents insurance, and an awful lot of people don’t have that.

We have to step our way carefully through that. You’ll understand there is a moral hazard issue here, which is that if the Government steps in immediately to help everyone who’s uninsured then no one will get insured.”

He said the Civil Defence payments were to help with immediate problems, such as clothing, and about $30 million had been paid out so far.

While in Tairawhiti, Robertson also announced the details of a support package for small and medium businesses in the areas affected. The $25m package will fund grants of up to $40,000 to businesses to help with cleanup and cash flow for those whose supply chains or ability to service customers were affected.

Robertson said decisions would be made “quickly” about more support.

“We want that to be delivered quickly and in line with local needs.”

That would see council’s development arms or local business associations charged with dispensing it and there would be “broad criteria” for it.

“It’s about cash flow and it’s about giving people confidence to take time to make some decisions.”

The Government was also working one-on-one with large businesses - those who employed hundreds of staff. He said that included discussing redeployment of staff, such as those in forestry.

“There is no shortage of work to be done. Those conversations are underway already.”

“These are businesses who employ a lot of people and we recognise their needs are different. So we are pulling together that and hope to be able to make more announcements about how we can support those medium and large scale businesses over the next few weeks.”

Robertson met with council representatives, iwi, and local businesses. He said infrastructure issues were common in most regions: roads, water and connectivity.

Robertson said the Cyclone Recovery Cabinet Committee would meet on Monday to discuss each region’s set of needs and work out what could be done immediately and what needed a longer-term approach.

“The way I look at is is response, recovery, rebuild. Each day I look at each of those for each region, and it’s important to note different regions have different aspects.”

That committee is chaired by Robertson and includes the ministers charged with monitoring each region’s needs.

Kiri Allan, who is charged with the Tairawhiti region, said the top two priorities there were roads and water - as well as cash flow for the businesses.