There are several vacant units at the Kahikatea St pensioner housing block. Photo / Mathew Nash
A woman was left “shaken” after a prowler tried to enter her Rotorua pensioner flat amid reports of homeless people sleeping around empty council-owned units.
The incident happened early last Saturday on Kahikatea St and has sparked security fears.
Another resident, whose car has been stolen twice, told Local Democracy Reporting she felt “scared” and “isolated” as the only occupant of a block of four units.
More than a quarter of Rotorua’s pensioner housing is vacant.
Rotorua Lakes Council provides 152 pensioner housing units across six blocks in Ngongotahā, Fenton Park, Glenholme and Westbrook.
At present, 46 of these are vacant, with the number doubling since November 2023.
The Kahikatea St resident, who did not want to be named due to safety reasons, said she became aware of a “prowler” wearing a beanie standing on her doorstep.
The man, roughly 180cm tall, tried to enter the her home but woke her by triggering a makeshift security system, she said.
He fled when she jumped from bed to slam and lock her door.
The resident said she “doesn’t scare easily” but had taken days to recover.
“It has left me a tad shaky.”
She is now taking security more seriously and ensuring doors and windows are locked at night.
She contacted the police.
She said that other residents told her homeless people were sleeping around the property’s empty pensioner units.
Council staff inspected the property. They found sleeping material near vacant units at the block’s Miller St end, she said.
She said it was “a bit disconcerting”, adding, “If they were occupied, it wouldn’t be a problem.”
Rotorua police Inspector Phil Gillbanks confirmed a report was made but there were “unfortunately no further lines of inquiry”.
Gillbanks was “not immediately aware of any particular instances of suspicious activity” at any of Rotorua’s other pensioner housing blocks.
“Our advice to anyone who notices suspicious activity, or activity that makes them feel unsafe, is to ensure your own safety first and call 111 immediately.”
Rotorua Lakes Council group manager of infrastructure and environment Stavros Michael confirmed some “personal items” were found behind wheelie bins nothing was found inside vacant units.
“The units are locked up and linked to a master system, and council staff or contractors are regularly at the pensioner unit complexes.”
A second resident told Local Democracy Reporting her car had been stolen twice and she felt “scared” and “isolated” as the only person in a block of four units.
In August, the council announced a new partnership with Ka Puta Ka Ora Emerge Aotearoa.
The community housing organisation will take over property management responsibilities, but the council will remain the landlord.
“Most vacant units required a complete refurbishment before they can be tenanted, and refurbishments occur as council budgets allow,” Michael said.
Upgrades “will need to align with any long-term redevelopment plans” as part of their Emerge partnership.
Under the partnership, residents will be required to sign a new tenancy agreement with Emerge, which includes raising their rent to market rates from February.
The agreement was initially scheduled to begin on October 1, but has been pushed back amid complaints regarding a lack of clarity on how rent rises will be covered.
The council and Emerge have assured residents the arrangement will allow for easier government help and that people solely dependent on superannuation would be “no worse off financially” for two years.
During last year’s Long-Term Plan process, the council agreed to invest $2.2m over the next two years in vacant homes to get them tenanted, but planned to reduce capital expenditure on pensioner housing to $590,000 by 2026-27.
Mathew Nash is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. He has previously written for SunLive, been a regular contributor to RNZ and was a football reporter in the UK for eight years.
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.