Silverfern Property, biggest supplier of Government emergency housing, in liquidation

More than $900,000 is being spent each day by the Government to house the homeless. Photo / Dean Purcell

The biggest supplier of emergency housing to the Social Development Ministry has gone into liquidation.

Silverfern Property Services, an Auckland-based company, received $14.7 million to house the homeless in the three years to December 2020.

A public notice placed in the NZ Herald classifieds on Wednesday, May 5, stated Silverfern Property Services Limited went into liquidation two days earlier, and an appointment of liquidator was resolved by special shareholder resolution.

The company has been approached for comments.

Silverfern Property Services was property management company which teed up accommodation for people in private rentals.

The companies office register showed it had just the one director, Mohammed Zainal Fizaaz, of Flat Bush.

Between January 2019 and the end of June 2020, it received more than $12m in payments from about $50m that was paid out to 10 providers over the period.

MSD said last year Silverfern Property was the subject of a formal complaint.

As well as being funded by MSD, the company also reportedly managed to get $50,000 in wage subsidies.

The company told RNZ at the time it planned to return the amount after realising it no longer met the criteria to receive it.

Last month, National's housing spokeswoman Nicola Willis said the emergency housing supplier had earned $14.7m since Labour came into office three years ago.

Her figures also showed one motel had earned $10.5m, 10 others earned more than $5m and 128 emergency housing suppliers were paid more than $1m.

"In total, more than half a billion dollars has been spent on housing people in emergency accommodation since Labour came into office," Willis said.

"Emergency housing should be about getting people back on their feet and into stable housing as soon as possible. Instead, these figures show that it's become a get-rich-quick scheme for motel owners."

More than $900,000 is being spent each day on emergency housing; there are no contracts with providers, and no expectations of a service beyond a typical guest.

The Government today also won't say whether crime is increasing in and around emergency housing because police are not collecting any information.

Neither MSD or the police are actively monitoring incidents of crime, violence or family harm in emergency housing.

RNZ reported it had been made aware of numerous accounts of people being victimised while living in motels and police often had to turn up.