Rotorua emergency housing motels: Slight rise in households living in homeless motels in February

A rise in the number of people living in Rotorua homeless motels, despite months of big decreases, has concerned a resident advocate who warns the Government not to lose focus.

In February this year, there were 375 households in contracted and non-contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua, 27 more than the 348 in January.

But while there is concern about the slight rise, a government department says numbers dropped significantly in the past year and it is excited about the progress it is making.

In March last year, there were 708 households in motels.

The Rotorua Temporary Housing Dashboard figures are now released monthly by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development as part of the Rotorua Housing Accord, an agreement signed in December between the Government, Rotorua Lakes Council and iwi.

The latest dashboard figures show there was an increase of 18 households – from 177 to 195 – entering contracted emergency housing from January to February.

There are 13 contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua, which are overseen by the ministry and run by social services agencies including Wera Aotearoa, Visions of a Helping Hand and Emerge Rotorua.

The dashboard showed an increase in the number staying in non-contracted emergency housing motels too, rising by 12 households from 129 in January to 141 in February.

The figures show there are still 16 non-contracted emergency housing motels, well down from the peak of 62 at the start of last year.

Non-contracted emergency housing motels are paid by the ministry to house people who receive “vouchers” for emergency housing when they have nowhere else to go.

There was no change to the number of households in Covid-19 (24) or transitional housing (15) motels.

Restore Rotorua chairman Trevor Newbrook. Photo / Andrew Warner

Resident lobby group Restore Rotorua chairman Trevor Newbrook said in his view, it was a common belief that the big reductions were a result of the Government “finally listening” to local wishes not to have out-of-town homeless people sent to Rotorua motels.

Newbrook said he believed the Government didn’t want any more bad publicity about what it “had done to Rotorua” and the improvements had been making a difference.

His comments stem from revelations about the impact of emergency housing detailed during a public resource consent hearing process last year and a Government admission in a recently released report that housing homeless people in Rotorua’s motels led to a rise in crime and antisocial behaviour.

“It concerns me we are seeing a rise in numbers now, though, so I hope they are keeping their finger on the pulse.”

Newbrook said it would be good to see a rise in the number of people in contracted emergency housing and a reduction in those in non-contracted motels as the contracted motels had better controls and processes.

Housing Minister Megan Woods was asked to comment, but a spokeswoman for her office said emergency housing was now being dealt with by Associate Social Development and Employment Minister Priyanca Radhakrishnan.

Social Development and Employment Associate Minister Priyanca Radhakrishnan. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The Rotorua Daily Post asked Radhakrishnan if the number of mixed-use motels had reduced to three by Christmas last year, which Woods said in December would happen.

She was also asked for a date when all emergency housing motels would drop to zero, as Woods had also said last year.

Radhakrishnan didn’t address the questions directly, but said in a statement it was encouraging to see the use of emergency housing and the motels used in Rotorua decline from 35 in September 2022 to 17 at the end of February this year.

She said Rotorua had seen a 60 per cent drop in households in emergency housing since February 2022.

“We are committed to continuing to reduce the need for emergency housing by building new housing and working with the community to solve the housing crisis we inherited from National. However, the reality is that the emergency housing need will remain until the housing crisis is resolved.”

She said the Ministry of Social Development had taken steps to strengthen processes and practices to better support people in need in Rotorua and reduce the number of motels in use, which would further reduce the number of mixed-use motels.

Radhakrishnan was also asked if the Government had directed Housing Hub staff not to allow out-of-towners to come to Rotorua for emergency housing, given the adverse effects it was having on the city.

In response, she said the ministry “did not actively relocate people to Rotorua or other regions to access emergency housing”.

She said a ministry report in 2022 showed “a majority of people in emergency housing were from Rotorua, a neighbouring territorial local authority, or had close ties to the city”.

The Rotorua Daily Post reported on the ministry’s report last year. It showed 1121 people went through emergency housing in Rotorua in 2021. Of that number, 343 people (nearly a third) were, at the time of the study, not from Rotorua.

Ministry of Social Development Bay of Plenty regional commissioner Mike Bryant. Photo / Andrew Warner

Ministry of Social Development regional commissioner Mike Bryant was asked if there was any reason for February’s increase.

He said, while there had been a slight increase, the overall trend for the last 12 months still showed a decline.

In February 2022, there were 351 households in emergency housing in Rotorua. In February 2023, there were 141, which represented a 60 per cent drop, he said.

“There has been a lot of hard work behind the scenes supporting families to move out of emergency housing by securing private rentals, transitional housing, contracted emergency housing, or public housing. We are excited by the progress that has been made.”

However, he expected the need for emergency housing would remain until the housing crisis was resolved.

He said mixed-use motel data wasn’t collected but, based on ministry staff conversations with emergency housing suppliers, they anecdotally believed two mixed-use motels were operating in Rotorua at the end of March.