Todd McClay (from left), Trevor Newbrook, Herby Ngawhika and Tama Potaka are marking the end of contracted emergency housing in Rotorua, including the Golden Mile – Fenton St. Photos / Kelly Makiha, NZME
Today marks the official end of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. City leaders say it’s now time for Rotorua to put the past behind it and reclaim the city it once was. Senior journalist Kelly Makiha reports.
It’s 6pm Saturday on Fenton St in Rotorua.
An elderly woman walks a little white dog. Further along, a young mum in activewear pushes a pram.
Across the road, well-dressed ladies with flashing Christmas earrings park before heading to Urbano for dinner.
A group of international visitors cross the road to their motel carrying supermarket bags.
Everyone is smiling.
What a difference a few years makes.
Rewind the clock a few years, and Fenton St was grim.
Many living in or visiting the area felt unsafe. Litter and dumped shopping trolleys lined the footpaths. Gang members, drug dealers, drunk and stoned people loitered in front of the motels they had been moved into while New Zealand battled Covid-19 lockdowns amid a housing crisis.
The temporary situation seemed a win-win when it began in 2020 – homeless people off the street and income for motels as tourism dried up.
As the use of motels for emergency accommodation grew, however, Rotorua found itself known as the homelessness capital of New Zealand.
Fenton St’s Golden Mile nickname – given for being the heart of the visitor accommodation sector – gave way to MSD Mile, referencing the Ministry of Social Development’s motel clientele.
Locals were increasingly concerned about how many rooms were filled by out-of-towners, but the Government insisted the “vast majority” were current or returning Rotorua people, or from nearby towns.
A 2022 Ministry of Social Development study found nearly a third were from out of town.
At the system’s peak, the city had more than 240 households in 13 Government-contracted motels, plus 59 in non-contracted motels.
The contracted motels were run and paid for by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, and managed by social service organistion providing wrap-around support and security.
Non-contracted motels were paid for through Ministry of Social Development emergency housing grants for urgent cases.
Some motels were mixed-use, hosting tourists and ministry clients.
Two years ago, National campaigned on ending contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua.
In Government, it has been gradually exiting the contracts with motel owners.
The transition is complete today as the last of those contracts officially end.
While the system of contracting Rotorua motels has ended, emergency housing remains available in Rotorua and across New Zealand, as a last-resort option for people in genuine need.
As at October 31, two non-contracted Rotorua emergency housing providers were housing nine households.
Rotorua police area commander Inspector Herby Ngawhika said he got “hoha” (fed up) with Rotorua not being able to shake the homeless tag.
“We have moved on and have come a long way since then.”
While the motel system “served a purpose at the time”, Ngawhika said being a great host then had ultimately been to Rotorua’s detriment.
“That manaaki for our manuhiri [hospitality for visitors] morphed into something that we didn’t see coming ... Hindsight is a wonderful thing.”
Ngawhika said a lot of people came to Rotorua from out of town for emergency housing, including high-risk offenders.
Crime escalated, particularly domestic-related offending as families became stressed living in cramped conditions away from their support networks.
“It did create a lot of work for us.”
He said police attending call-outs at motels found people who spoke of getting “a one-way ticket here from MSD”.
Ngawhika said his staff had to become a “social service” for a period, but had since been able to get back to basic policing.
He said the newly established CBD beat team had made a big impact – helping to move along troublesome rough sleepers, as well as working to prevent crimes such as shoplifting and disorder.
He said the partnership with the Rotorua Lakes Council was working well and while people still slept rough in the central city, emergency housing could not fix that problem.
Ngawhika said those people tended to have complex mental health and addiction issues.
“It is the same dozen … some of them are not ready to be in homes.”
Overall, Ngawhika said he felt proud of how far Rotorua had come.
“Anecdotally, the number of issues has reduced, and the behavioural problems have come right down in terms of overt anti-social stuff.”
Rotorua MP Todd McClay said Rotorua had taken back its town and could now put its best foot forward.
He said the contracts ending concluded a harmful “failed experiment” of the last Labour Government and he had delivered on his election promise.
McClay said everything started to change the minute the Government insisted out-of-towners stop being given emergency housing options in Rotorua.
In his view, this proved the city had been playing host to the country’s homeless problem.
He said families were now in homes, the streets safer, the city’s reputation “firmly back on track” and tourists were returning.
The Government was pumping millions of dollars into campaigns promoting Rotorua as a world-class tourism destination.
McClay said Rotorua’s “best days are ahead”.
Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka said the last of the previously contracted motels were preparing to return to the visitor market.
He said the Government had reduced the number of people in emergency housing by 85%.
Referrals into Rotorua contracted motels stopped on June 15, with the final residents rehoused in November.
At the time of that milestone, Potaka said Government agencies had partnered with local groups to move every household into stable, secure homes.
Last month, Labour housing spokesman Kieran McAnulty accused the Government of shifting the problem “from emergency housing to out the front of families’ homes and businesses”.
He said he counted eight homeless people in one Rotorua block on a recent visit.
McAnulty said the Government had cut Kāinga Ora’s budget and people could not get into emergency housing, with grants denied at record rates.
Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell responded that she had seen no evidence of people sleeping rough due to being removed from emergency housing motels.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins reflected on the contracted motel system in a June interview with the Rotorua Daily Post.
He said no one expected emergency housing motels to be a long-term solution and the Labour Government of the time was given “bad advice” by officials about out-of-towners coming to Rotorua.
Hipkins said there would have been “no homelessness in the first place” if the prior National-led Government had built state houses as fast as Labour did.
Chairman of advocacy group Restore Rotorua, Trevor Newbrook, said he was pleased National kept its election promise to end the motel system.
“When the previous Labour Government set Rotorua up as a trial for mass homeless motels, it took a big toll on the local people.”
Newbrook said when the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development tried to get resource consent for 13 contracted emergency housing motels for five years without consulting the public, Rotorua stood up and said “no, enough is enough”.
“This saw the formation of Restore Rotorua Incorporated, which was supported both financially and personally by a large part of the local community. As chair I thank all those across Rotorua who supported us, especially Jenny Peace and Carolyne Hall.”
Newbrook said housing lots of people, many with serious issues, together in tiny motel rooms designed for short holidays was not a great idea.
“Restore Rotorua has always maintained that homeless people, especially families, should be helped but this was the wrong approach.
“It is great to see how Rotorua is now bouncing back, tourism is back, Fenton St is again the Golden Mile and it feels safe.”
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.