The council has also received several resource consent applications to transition motels from motel accommodation to emergency or long-term housing, and approved one.
It allowed the Government to purchase Boulevard Motel on one of the main routes to town - Fenton Street, changing the motel mile to MSD Mile in my opinion.
This has changed the demographic of Rotorua, whilst reducing the number of places to stay for domestic tourists.
A "humanitarian crisis" the mayor calls it. I call it "human error" in the council.
With an unusually quiet Labour Weekend, have the effects of council's, in my view, ill-informed decisions started to come home to roost?
The council introduced its "Build Back Better" economic recovery programme in the first lockdown in 2020.
However, some believe Rotorua is now worse off, not better off.
Tracey McLeod
Lake Tarawera
Council should be applauded
I was shocked at the generally negative response to Mayor Chadwick's "Humanitarian Crisis" statement.
( October 24).
Not only Rotorua, but the entire nation is paying the price for allowing, over past decades, a huge gap to develop between the rich and poor. Failure to mandate caps on rent increases is, in my view, a major cause of the current homelessness crisis.
Mayor Chadwick's description of an elderly woman entering emergency motel accommodation due to a $30 increase in weekly rent, is an example. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
The Ministry of Social Development states that very few of the 850 families in emergency accommodation are from outside Rotorua. This motel accommodation is vital, not only for humanitarian reasons, but because marginalised people in overcrowded conditions are most vulnerable in the current pandemic.
At least Mayor Chadwick and Lakes Council have a plan for future housing for our city, setting a target of 3000 homes, and planning for inner-city housing development.
Together with Kainga Ora's plans for more social housing, this is a beginning.
Mayor Chadwick, and Lakes Council, should, in my view, be applauded.
Jackie Evans
Pukehangi
Has Rotorua not lost enough?
Regarding the decision to put the Lakeland Queen into mothballs.
Have we not lost enough activities in Rotorua - the theatre, the lakefront cafe, the museum, half the shops in the CBD, the Kiwi place out by the Luge, and probably more about which I do not know?
Are we still a tourist destination, or are we now a homeless ghetto?
What a tragedy.
Jim Adams
Rotorua
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