Letters to the editor: MSD queue concerns to be addressed

MSD regional commissioner Mike Bryant has addressed concerns about people waiting in queues at the Rotorua MSD office. Photo / Getty Images

We accept the concerns that Merepeka Raukawa-Tait raised in a recent opinion piece regarding queues at our Rotorua service centre (Opinion, May 4).

I apologise to those who have been affected.

We are remedying this as a matter of urgency.

We should have done more to eliminate the need for whānau to wait outside. It doesn't reflect the service we are trying to provide to our whānau.

We are required to follow Covid-19 requirements and tried different approaches to managing our social distancing requirements. We accept that we didn't get this right.

We have reconfigured the service centre so that more whānau can safely be in the office at one time.

We will continue to encourage whānau to book appointments with our service centre staff and take advantage of the wide range of services we can provide online and via our call centres.

Mike Bryant, Regional Commissioner
Ministry of Social Development

head

How long have the ratepayers and residents of Rotorua been saying that not all the homeless in Rotorua are from Rotorua? (News, May 6)

We have been saying this for a few years now since they started arriving from all over and motels and hotels were being used to accommodate them.

We were always able to feed our homeless, and we had a few places to accommodate them, but for the past two years or so we have found we cannot feed them all. Now the motels and hotels are overflowing and yet still they keep coming.

We visit other cities and they are looking great, then we return to ours and think what a drab, dirty hole.

It's depressing to see it looking as it does now, after what used to be a beautiful city.

It's about time the council stopped letting the Government walk all over us and say "no more".

Viv Radley
Rotorua

head

I recently spent four days in Wellington.

Prior to the trip, I had booked directly with an establishment where I had stayed several times previously.

When I arrived at the reception, I was asked for a photo ID.

Having none, I was soon out on the streets on a typically damp and windy Wellington night looking for alternative accommodation either in person or by phone.

Upmarket or downmarket, "we require to see photo ID'' was the standard requirement.

Offering to pay in advance didn't cut it. A visit to the Wellington police station didn't result in me being given a document/letter to indicate or confirm that I was who I claimed to be.

I saw several people dossing down in shop doorways and it looked as though I was also destined to appear as one more homeless soul on windswept Lambton Quay.

As a last resort, I returned to where I had been booked. My nemesis was still in charge but after checking with a superior, he reluctantly offered me one night to be paid in advance.

Thankfully matters were settled with a more experienced administrator the next morning.

If you are travelling around the country this winter take photo ID with you – I certainly will be.

Simon Earle
Rotorua