Fresh calls for Government to address Far North housing crisis

A lack of housing in the Far North means local motels are filling up with people unable to find long-term accommodation. Photo/File

Te Pāti Māori's call for an enquiry into Rotorua's emergency housing situation has sparked fresh calls for the Government to address the Far North's housing crisis.

On Monday, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi announced that he'd asked Minister for Housing Megan Woods to investigate agencies and contractors dealing with Rotorua's emergency housing.

Te Pāti Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi. Photo/File

The call came after an expose by TVNZ's Sunday programme revealed the poor living conditions of Rotorua's emergency housing motels.

While Northland "only" had 30 households in emergency housing in July, the issue regarding a lack of long-term housing remained critical.

According to the Ministry for Housing, there were currently 671 state houses located in the Far North.

As of June, 489 applicants were registered on the public housing register for the Far North District.

Kaitaia's He Korowai Trust is a transitional housing provider, established by much-loved founder the late Ricky Houghton, in response to a severe need for long-term housing.

General manager Toddy Shepherd said Houghton had called on the Government many years ago to acknowledge that the Far North was in a state of crisis.

She said there was not a day they didn't receive a referral from MSD for someone seeking accommodation and believed it was time to revisit the Far North's housing shortage.

"Emergency housing is for people in absolute crisis and is only offered for seven days," Shepherd said.

He Korowai Trust general manager, Toddy Shepherd.Photo/File

"Providing more emergency housing isn't a sustainable solution and perpetuates the transitional housing problem.

"We've had some clients stuck with us for five years because they couldn't afford suitable accommodation.

"The Government says they have a five-year plan to build houses but we need more transitional housing and, more importantly, long-term housing options right now."

Shepherd said a number of factors were creating barriers to people finding a home, including the soaring cost of living, debt and lack of available housing.

Another issue for the Far North was the lack of general accommodation for visitors due to many local motels now being filled with people in transitional housing.

Unlike emergency housing, transitional housing typically allows people to stay for up to 12 weeks in temporary accommodation.

Kaitaia Business Association (KBA) and Business & Professional Women (BPW) Kaitaia chair, Andrea Panther, said the Far North accommodation situation was dire.

She claimed this was having a flow-on effect on whether people chose the Far North as a holiday or business destination.

"The situation here really impacts people wanting to visit our town," Panther said.

"BPW Kaitaia is organising to host our national conference here but we're unable to find one place to host all our guests.

"We have around 80 people coming, so I am a bit concerned about where they'll stay."

Kaitaia Business Association chairwoman Andrea Panther. Photo/File.

Panther said she also had concerns about safety and families having to use the local motels which she felt were inappropriate for long-term use.

She explained that she'd once stayed in a local motel for a couple of nights and couldn't imagine a family living there for months on end.

"A lot of these places don't have cooking facilities, so it makes me shudder to think that people have to live there for long periods of time," Panther said.

"There is also a sense that there is nowhere safe to stay in Kaitaia anymore.

"One of our recent KBA speakers stayed the night here recently, only to be woken up at 2am with someone knocking on her door.

"She was so frightened that she had to call her parents to see her and make sure she was OK."

Panther said she'd love to see some of the local iwi and other housing development projects fast-tracked to help with the problem.

Serafina Lay took over as manager of The Northerner motel in 2019 and said around 30 of the 75 rooms were currently filled with people in transitional housing.

These were made up of families, but mostly couples and individuals struggling to find long-term housing, sometimes up to a year.

Lay confirmed the motel rooms only had a microwave and toaster, so people needed to use the community kitchen if wanting to cook a meal.

She spoke frankly about how when she first started the motel was in a terrible state, with daily police callouts for bad behaviour.

These days, however, she said a vetting system was in place, so if anyone broke the rules, they were asked to leave.

Hundreds of households across the Far North are waiting to find long-term housing. Photo/File.

"I watched the show about Rotorua and think what's happening there is terrible," Lay said.

"Here the rules are that kids must go to school or kohanga and bad behaviour is not tolerated.

"It is really sad because people have nowhere to go and end up staying here for a long time.

"In summer they'll go back to staying in their cars or tents, but in winter they'll be back because it's too cold.

"We definitely need more houses for people to live here in Kaitaia."

MP for Te Tai Tokerau and Minister for Corrections, Kelvin Davis, said he was aware that many people in the Far North were in urgent need of more permanent housing.

He said the only solution was to build more houses and blamed the National government's legacy of selling off state housing as the major reason for the current crisis.

"We have had to rebuild the state's public housing after National decimated the sector, ending up with 1500 fewer homes than it started with," Davis said.

"I would disagree with any suggestion myself that my colleagues have been absent.

Corrections Minister and MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Kelvin Davis. Photo/Peter De Graaf

"If National had added houses at the rate we are, it would have made a huge difference to the waiting list and is arguable if there would have been one at all."

Chris Bishop, National's Housing spokesperson, said he too was aware of the housing shortage in the Far North and planned to visit to see the situation for himself.

He said it was appalling that a first-world country like New Zealand had kids living in cars and people being housed in motels for months at a time.

Bishop said National would work with community housing providers to quickly provide transitional housing and support for those in need.

"National would abolish Labour's interest deductibility changes which officials warned would lead to fewer rental properties, higher rents and more people in emergency housing," Bishop said.

"Emergency housing is a social and economic disaster. Labour said they would fix housing.

National housing spokesman Chris Bishop. Photo/File

"Five years on, the waitlist is up by 20,000 people, 8000 families live in motels, including 4000 kids, and 480 families live in cars. They have failed."

Bishop said while he acknowledged National had transferred some state homes to ownership by the community housing sector, those homes had allegedly remained social houses.

According to the Ministry of Housing, the Northland region was considered a 'priority area' for housing.

Minister Dr Megan Woods said The Public Housing Plan was set to provide an additional 165 public housing places in the Far North and 177 homes had been delivered since November 2017.

By June 2024, the intention for supply in Northland was 2,557 public housing places and 311 transitional housing places.

Minister Woods acknowledged the housing situation in Northland was particularly difficult and there was also a shortage of suitable emergency housing options.

"Ministry of Social Development (MSD) and Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) are doing all they can to help applicants to live with whanau," Woods said.

"HUD are working to free up more homes and provide suitable alternative options where they can.

Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods. Photo/File

"National left office with 98 fewer public homes in the Far North than when it got into government and milked $576 million in dividends from (the previous public housing agency) Housing New Zealand.

"Our public housing programme is the biggest state housing building initiative since the 1970s, but it will take more time to build more houses and end the need for emergency accommodation.

"Until then, we stand by ensuring people having a roof over their heads and beds to sleep in rather than sleeping rough."

Woods added the Government was also currently partnering with a number of Far North Māori housing providers to deliver affordable and public housing.

Te Pāti Māori were contacted for comment, but did not respond in time for the edition.