The Government inherited multiple issues across multiple ministries. Photo / Denise Piper
The Government inherited multiple issues across multiple ministries. Photo / Denise Piper
EDITORIAL
Homeless people – especially young tamariki squeezed into motel living accommodation – are not the headlines any Government wants.
That’s why the coalition Government must be applauded for the speed and urgency it placed on getting children and their whānau out of emergency motels and into href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/housing/" target="_blank">homes.
It hasn’t got rid of the emergency housing list but it appears that it is making a concerted attempt across multiple ministries to get the homeless issue sorted.
None of us want to see children living in motels, especially as many of society’s less fortunate – some living in those environments by their own choosing – are also being housed under those conditions.
The Government inherited multiple issues across multiple ministries and spent the first few months unbundling the major problems. The deeper it dived, the worse the issue and the costs got.
The motels being exited from contracted emergency housing (clockwise from top left): Midway Motel, Emerald Spa, Tuscany Villas, Malones Motel. Photos / Kelly Makiha
Some big costs like Auckland’s light rail, Three Waters, the Māori Health Authority and new Cook Strait ferries were quickly cut after the pulse of each of the projects were DNR – Do Not Resuscitate – and their plugs were pulled.
Provided the data Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka released on Sunday is right, then this Government can take a bow, having accomplished more during its first 10 months in office than some Governments did in a full term of addressing the emergency housing dilemma.
Between December 2023 and the end of August 2024 – around 10 months – the total number of households living in emergency housing motels reduced by 57%, from 3141 households to 1365.
Potaka said the big part of the reduction was partly due to a change the Government made in April, when children became its No 1 priority. Children who had been in emergency housing for more than 12 weeks were put to the top of the emergency housing list, Potaka said.
Children should always have been No 1 on the priority list.
“So far, thanks to Priority One, we’ve seen around 645 households move from emergency housing into social housing.
“That includes over 1311 children who no longer have to live in unsuitable dank motels.”
That’s great news for the 1300+ kids who have been moved into a home but there are still more than 1000 children and around 500 families waiting in the motel departure lounges for their exit plans.
