Urbano Bistro Cafe & Restaurant owner Richard Sewell says he'd love to hear some people getting emergency housing say thanks. Photo / Andrew Warner
Urbano Bistro Cafe & Restaurant owner Richard Sewell says he'd love to hear some people getting emergency housing say thanks. Photo / Andrew Warner
Smack in the middle of Rotorua's emergency housing providers on what has become known as "MSD Mile" on Fenton St is an upmarket award-winning restaurant.
For 39 years its owner, Richard Sewell, has run successful businesses in the city and despite "going to hell and back in the last sixmonths" as a result of what he believes is trouble caused by some people around his business, it is doing well and is not going anywhere.
But he just wants one thing: for those who are being helped in emergency housing to be more grateful.
In his view: "Wouldn't it be nice if someone from those groups that stay in the motels knock on the door of the Rotorua Daily Post and says 'I just want to say thank you Rotorua, you have saved us and our families and you've put a roof over our heads' ... 'thank you for the opportunity to live in your city'."
He believed such an acknowledgement would make the city's situation seem a little more palatable.
The Government this week announced a $30 million package that will have it decide who runs emergency housing in Rotorua - as opposed to individual motels taking on clients.
It will also group clients as a means to keep women and children away from others, provide wraparound social services and open a one-stop housing hub.
"I'm not sure the distribution of more money will fix this problem."
He said, in his view, he had never seen Rotorua look so bad and feared it would be between one to three years before "we get it back".
Sewell said, as a result of a few incidents, his business had to spend a lot of money installing security cameras around its building and neighbouring Willow Fashion Boutique, the premises of which he also owned.
He said the added security meant staff next door no longer had to lock their doors between customers.
Sewell has also had to find other customers since his base of motel guests had all but disappeared.
He said there were 22 motels around his business and only five weren't used for housing purposes.
Among the loss were customers from Rydges Rotorua, which is now a managed isolation and quarantine hotel, and five star motels Tuscany Villas and Emerald Spa, which were used for emergency housing.
He said elderly local customers in the area no longer walked to his restaurant, despite some living only 200m away, because they felt safer to drive.
But despite everything, thanks to local support, his business was doing great.
"We have been in business for 39 years. I have a property at Ōhope and could shut the doors and leave here tomorrow but I'm born and raised here. This is where we do our business. This is our town."
Watchdog Security chief executive officer Brett Wilson said he was "massively underwhelmed" by the Government announcement.
"I actually think it's just nothing. It's putting lipstick on a pig. There's no long-term plan and nothing changes."
He said the Government was still denying out-of-towners were coming to Rotorua for emergency housing.
"I have sympathy for the minority of genuine people who are in need of houses but the existence of what's going on has meant, in my opinion, there are people milking this for less than honourable motives," he said.
In his view: "There are genuine people but there are certainly not 2000 of them that's for sure. The structure we have now is just enabling bad behaviour."
While Wilson said keeping women and children away from potential troublemakers was positive, he was disappointed in what he believed was a lack of a long-term plan.
"It's shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic just to make things look better."
Visions of a Helping Hand chief executive officer Tiny Deane. Photo / File
Visions of a Helping Hand chief executive officer Tiny Deane said he would be meeting with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to find out what the new structure meant for him.
Deane, whose trust runs two motels on Fenton St - Emerald Spa and Tuscany Villas - as well as several transitional houses, was pleased the Government was adopting a model similar to the trust's.
He said his trust looked after women and children, provided wrap-around services, moved 25 to 30 families a month into transitional housing and reconnected about 10 to 15 people a month with their families.
He said while historically some families had "written off their sons and daughters" they were now understanding the housing crisis and were willing to give them another chance.
"Mums and dads are taking ownership of their kids who have gone off the rails and taking them back into their family home."
It is not known how the Government's announcement will affect the new lease owners of the Ambassador Thermal Motel, a deal that went unconditional last week.
The new owners, who run emergency housing motels in Hamilton and Auckland, told the Rotorua Daily Post last week they intended to put emergency housing clients in the motel, which is in a prime tourist spot.
The new lease owners didn't want to comment when approached by the Rotorua Daily Post this week.
Ministry of Social Development regional commissioner for the Bay of Plenty, Mike Bryant, told the Rotorua Daily Post on Wednesday it didn't have any current plans to use the Ambassador as a regular provider of emergency accommodation.
It had not made any recent grants for emergency housing clients at the Ambassador.
Key changes:
* Government to directly contract motels for emergency accommodation * Wrap around social support services for those in emergency accommodation to be provided * Grouping of cohorts like families and tamariki in particular motels separate from other groups * One-stop Housing Hub for access to services and support to be established.
