Jenny Peace from Restore Rotorua talks about emergency housing motel issues on Fenton Street.
People fighting in the street, a woman smashing cars and windows with a metal baseball bat and people peeing on office windows are some of the antisocial problems that have upset residents living near homeless motels.
There are nearly 100 fewer people living in homeless motels in Rotorua compared with the previous month, but residents near some motels are still complaining of disorder relating to some people they say are living in emergency housing.
Lobby group Restore Rotorua is compiling a complaints register, which includes the examples above, to present to a community liaison group formed as part of the Government’s contracted emergency housing conditions.
Ministry of Housing and Urban Development figures for April show there were 42 fewer households in emergency housing motels in that month, compared with March this year, and that equated to 99 fewer people.
The ministry publishes the figures monthly as part of the Rotorua Housing Accord agreement signed by the Government, the Rotorua Lakes Council and local iwi representatives.
The total number of people in emergency housing motels in April was 696, compared with 795 in March. There were 291 children in emergency housing in April - with most in contracted emergency housing motels.
The number of motels being used for emergency housing remains the same at 30 - 14 motels used for non-contracted emergency housing, 13 for contracted emergency housing, two for Covid-19 response and one transitional motel.
The figures are well down on the peak periods at the start of last year when there were 708 households in emergency housing motels. The figures for the number of people in the 708 households at that time were not part of the published information.
Restore Rotorua secretary Jenny Peace told the Rotorua Daily Post she had asked the organisation’s members to document any concerning incidents to ensure it could accurately give feedback to the Community Liaison Group - which had been set up as a condition on the 13 contracted motels being granted resource consent for two years.
Restore Rotorua's Jenny Peace. Photo / Andrew Warner
One of the many conditions independent commissioners imposed as part of its agreement to allow contracted emergency housing to continue was to ensure better communication between residents, the ministry, the council and people running the motels.
Peace said the group would meet for the second time today and she intended to update members that while there had been a reduction in the overall number of people in emergency housing motels, residents were still having to endure behaviour that should not be tolerated.
She said among the concerns were business owners seeing people leaving emergency accommodation and “peeing” on office windows, a woman who came out of a motel on Fenton St with a metal baseball bat whacking cars and windows, a sign rammed through a phone booth on Fenton St and several reports of drunks, fighting and family violence.
Peace said there were still the usual reports of people hanging around houses and regular break-ins, as well as bikes being stolen off bike racks on cars parked in the area.
She said one Restore Rotorua member reported going for a run along Fenton St and finding a mattress on the footpath that appeared to have been flung over the fence of a contracted emergency housing motel. He threw the mattress back over the motel’s fence, only to find it had been thrown on the footpath again when he returned on his run a short time later.
Peace said there appeared to be more issues at one contracted motel and she intended to raise this with the motel’s management at Thursday’s meeting.
“It’s certainly not as bad as it was but it’s starting to rear its ugly head again.”
The Rotorua Daily Post asked the ministry to comment on the incidents reported to Restore Rotorua but ministry partnerships and performance general manager William Barris said it did not comment on specific incidents that occurred in contracted emergency accommodation.
“People in contracted emergency accommodation are expected to observe the rules and conditions of the accommodation provider for everyone’s wellbeing, including their own,” Barris said.
The ministry was also asked to comment on the general running of the contracted emergency housing motels since the commissioners’ imposed conditions came into effect at the start of the year.
Barris said the ministry was in regularcontact with contracted moteliers and partner agencies, including police, to identify issues and respond to any problems.
Contracts with the two Covid-19 response motels - Tuscany Villas and Four Canoes Hotel - end on June 30. In April, there were 33 people (24 adults and nine children) in those motels.
A contract with a transitional motel, which the ministry refuses to name, also ends in June. In April, there were 21 people in that motel (15 adults and six children).
Barris said people staying in those motels would continue to have accommodation.
“At this stage, we have no comment to make on which of these motels will continue to be contracted beyond 30 June,” he said.
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.
