The trust’s largest expenses in the past financial year included employee costs ($4.5m) and rent paid to landlords ($3.5m).
The trust also spent $3.6m as a security expense. In the prior financial year, the trust spent $11,606 on security.
In response to questions from the Rotorua Daily Post, the trust’s board of trustees co-chair Anaru Grant issued a statement confirming the $3.6m security expense was paid to Tigers Express Security for providing “security services required under the contract with the funders”.
“This payment covered the provision of 24/7 on-site security services across nine Visions of a Helping Hand sites,” Grant said.
“The security services are to enhance the safety of whanau during their stay at a contracted emergency housing motel.”
Grant said the dollar difference between the two years were “simply wages/salaries for staff”.
“In the 2021-22 year the security staff were employed by Visions,” Grant said.
“They were then moved to Tigers Express Security as a result of the requirement to separate the security side of the charitable trust, so the differences between the two years are simply wages/salaries for staff.”
“In the earlier year, they were paid directly by Visions. In the most recent year, they were paid by Tigers Express Security, which was contracted by Visions.”
Grant said Tigers Express Security also provided a 24/7 roaming security service that supported the other housing providers within the Te Hau ki Te Kainga – Contracted Emergency Housing Collective totalling security coverage across 13 sites.
Tigers Express Security was owned by Visions chief executive Tiny Deane during the financial year. In June, the Private Personnel Licensing Authority has criticised Deane for being at the helm of both businesses because it conflicted with the Government’s requirement for a clear separation between social support and security services. It ruled he must sell the security business – which Deane has been in the process of doing – or it would face losing its operating licence.
According to its financial summary, the trust provided services to seven contracted emergency housing sites, 59 transitional housing sites and 100 community housing sites.
This amounted to supporting 1174 families and 990 children across all its services.
The previous financial year the trust was supporting 2809 families and 3284 children “every month cumulatively” within emergency housing services alone.
The summary recorded that during the 2022/23 financial year, the trust had seven paid board members, 59 full-time employees and four casual employees.
It also recorded 59 security staff but noted they were transferred to an “alternative entity” in July 2022. As of March 31 last year, the trust employed 53 full-time staff and four paid board members.
According to the trust’s report, in the 2022/23 year, 132 households exited contracted emergency housing into long-term housing.
In answer to questions sent by the Rotorua Daily Post, Grant said the numbers reported for 2022/23 were not comparable with those for the prior year.
“The number of families has increased, along with demand for services across all accommodation types that Visions provides,” Grant said.
“The number of whānau and the number of tamariki supported every month in the year ended March 2022 was totalled cumulatively, so any that stayed longer than a month were added to the total each month. We changed to a more relevant reporting method for 2023, as you can see.”
Grant said the trust’s previous method of reporting had no impact on the funding model applied by government agencies.
“The increase in funding reflected the increase in support provided.”
Deane was also approached for comment.
A Ministry of Housing and Development [MHUD] spokesperson said Visions of a Helping Hand received about $11.6m in funding for the year ending June 30, 2023.
The spokesperson said the funding was for transitional housing, Covid-19 response support services and contracted emergency housing support services.
“We have negotiated changes in funding at various points over the length of our contracts with Visions to reflect real changes in costs, and to enable Visions to continue to assist whanau into longer-term housing and provide support services which include wellbeing checks, ensuring access to food and welfare and other essential services.”
The spokesperson said MHUD was satisfied that “Visions is meeting its contract provisions and continues to monitor this on an ongoing basis”.
Ministry of Social Development [MSD] regional commissioner Jacob Davies said there had been no increase in payment for support services to the trust over the 2022 and 2023 financial years.
“For the 2021/22 financial year Visions was paid $1m for an eight-month contract,” Davies said.
“For the 2022/23 financial year, the contract of $1.4m was for a full year. This represents an effective decrease from the previous year.”
Davies said in the current financial year MSD was reducing its spending on services from the trust to reflect the falling number of clients in emergency housing who need support services.
The contract was due to end at the end of next month.
Davies said the trust was currently contracted to provide support services to people in emergency housing in Rotorua and to help them into more permanent accommodation such as rental accommodation.
“[The trust] also helps those who need additional support with referrals to other agencies, services, and programmes to address their specific challenges.”
Davies said MSD was pleased the number of people in emergency accommodation in Rotorua “continues to fall”.
“[The trust] are amongst the providers who are helping make that happen.”
Maryana Garcia is a regional reporter writing for the Rotorua Daily Post and the Bay of Plenty Times. She covers local issues, health and crime.
