$2.8million was spent across multiple motels in Hawke's Bay to provide emergency housing during lockdown.
nimon.jpg Napier National Party candidate Katie Nimon
YULE_Lawrence__Tukituki.JPG Tukituki National MP Lawrence Yule
lorck.jpg Tukituki Labour party candidate Anna Lorck
Hawke's Bay Today asked the front running candidates in Napier and Tukituki to respond to the emergency housing spending revealed this week.
Napier Labour MP Stuart Nash
The government took a considered, but highly disciplined health-based approach when dealing with the threat of Covid-19 in our communities.
This meant that everyone, no matter how disenfranchised or their personal circumstances, had to be cared for, accounted for and kept safe.
The only way this could happen was to house our vulnerable citizens in temporary facilities; usually motels.
Post lockdown a number of these people are still located in motel rooms until suitable accommodation can be found and houses built.
Is this ideal or a sustainable solution? Absolutely not, but consider in Napier alone, the previous National government demolished around 130 state houses and units.
Also when we came into government many families were sleeping rough in cars or worse, on the streets, so we have dealt with this terrible situation.
By some accounts there are around 2500 new houses forecast to be built across the Bay in the next four to five years. This is a mixture of state, social, papakāinga and private housing developments.
Napier National Party candidate Katie Nimon
While it's important people have a roof over their heads, the amount being spent on emergency housing reflects Labour's short-sighted policies.
The public housing waiting list is at a record high because Labour's poor work on housing forced families from their homes.
We've had to spend this much because Labour's policies have scared off landlords and driven up rents by more than $50 per week.
National is committed to supporting our most vulnerable New Zealanders and helping them lead better, more independent lives.
We will empower Community Housing Providers to build more social houses by setting aside $1 billion from Kāinga Ora's borrowing facility.
We will also repeal the RMA so we can get on with building more houses for New Zealanders.
Our region needs to see a boom - in fact, we need 30 years of growth quickly. Not only for those living in motels, but for the moteliers wanting to welcome visitors, and for the communities that didn't sign up for the crime that's come with the emergency housing issue.
Tukituki National MP Lawrence Yule
This level of emergency accommodation expenditure is unacceptable.
Despite big promises from Labour, the housing crisis has grown dramatically.
The number of people on the Housing Register in Hastings has gone from 163 to 567 in the last three years despite there being no change in the eligibility criteria during this time.
Labour have only built 22 new state houses despite significant availability of land.
The other factor impacting on the availability of rental housing a massive exit of private sector providers who have been scared off by the threat of a Capital Gains Tax, compliance requirements and fundamental changes to tenancy laws which shift the balance completely in the tenants favour.
While emergency accommodation is better than no accommodation, I believe the private sector needs to be empowered and supported to provide affordable rental accommodation as it has done in the past.
Tukituki Labour Party candidate Anna Lorck
Three years ago Hawke's Bay had families and children living in cars, in tents, and in sheds, along with one of the worst housing over-crowding rates in the country, all while National kept saying there was not a housing crisis and sold off hundreds of state houses across Hawke's Bay.
Today we are now seeing in Hastings, over 200 houses being built, and $16.5 million of new Government money invested into infrastructure to help support more housing.
Families are now moving into new, affordable homes in Raureka and construction is underway on others including a development starting in Mahora next week.
This progress would never have happened under National's watch.
During the Covid-19 lockdown response we also made sure everyone was cared for, which included Emergency accommodation, no matter what your personal circumstances - which kept people safe, and was a massive health and housing response.
There have been four artists-in-residence at Rinitawa.