Fighting for Rotorua: Fewer homeless in emergency housing, city returning to positive ‘vibe’

The number of homeless people living in Rotorua motels has nearly halved in the past year.

A Government reporting dashboard, introduced towards the end of last year, shows the number of households in Rotorua Government-contracted and non-contracted emergency housing motels had gone from 703 in December 2021 to 353 in December last year.

The biggest reductions have come from those in non-contracted motels - motels paid on a one-off basis by the Ministry of Social Development by people who say they have nowhere else to go.

The number of households in those motels reduced from 372 to 138 from December 2021 to December last year.

The number of these motels being used by the Ministry of Social Development fell from 62 to 17 in the same timeframe.

There has also been a slight reduction in the number of households in contracted emergency housing motels in that time - from 217 to 176.

There are 13 contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua which come under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and are run by contracted social services providers such as Wera Aotearoa Charitable Trust and Visions of a Helping Hand.

Rotorua also has two Government-run Covid-19 response motels (Tuscany Villas and Four Canoes Hotel) and one transitional housing motel (the former Boulevard Motel now called 2six5 on Fenton).

Carolyne Hall says Fenton St has improved significantly. Photo / Andrew Warner

The new figures were pleasing to at least one Glenholme resident, Carolyn Hall, who said she could now bike down Fenton St and feel safe.

A police heat map, obtained by the Rotorua Daily Post Weekend last year, showed the number of times police were called for service skyrocketed during peak emergency housing periods.

When asked if police had noticed a reduction in calls for service in the Fenton St area recently as a result of the reduction of people in emergency housing, Rotorua Area Commander Inspector Herby Ngawhika said police responded to calls for a “wide variety of incidents and in a range of locations”.

“Our role as police is to ensure everyone in our community is safe and feels safe but we cannot do it alone. We have strong relationships with partner agencies and there is some great work being done by social service providers to support our communities.”

While there was still a long way to go, Hall said the reduction in Rotorua’s emergency housing numbers was starting to positively impact residents.

Hall was one of hundreds of Glenholme residents who wrote or spoke to submissions during a resource consent process in October that determined the future of contracted emergency housing motels.

The submissions overwhelmingly told of residents feeling unsafe, and witnessing fights, domestic violence and drug deals happening around the motels. An increased gang presence was making locals feel uneasy.

Glenhome resident Carolyne Hall during her oral submission to independent commissioners over the future of contracted emergency housing motels. Photo / Mead Norton

Hall, who at times was in tears during her oral submission, described how she and her husband built their Holland St home nine years ago hoping their adult son, who suffered a traumatic brain injury, would be able to live there independently after they died.

The house had two motels on its back boundary and another motel adjacent and there had never been any issues until emergency housing clients moved in, she said.

She detailed the behaviour and crime her family endured, which she said forced six immediate neighbours to leave.

But now the “vibe” was different, she said.

For the first time in several years, she and her husband were biking down Fenton St again.

“There’s definitely not that presence that hung around out the front like they used to. There are a lot more families and you see the kids all standing outside waiting for their school bus to pick them up. It’s actually quite nice to see.”

She said she would like to see an eventual end to the Ministry of Social Development’s grants system, leaving only contracted motels run by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.

Asked why she believed the numbers had started to reduce now, despite residents’ calls for action for more than two years, she said it was her opinion media attention from the resource consent submission process helped those in power realise the extent of what locals were going through.

She firmly believed the ministry was now taking a harder line when it came to allowing out-of-towners to Rotorua.

“Sadly telling our stories painted a negative picture but that needed to happen for change to happen.”

She said it was starting to feel like the old Rotorua again, and described her experience talking to visitors while volunteering at the Tarawera Ultra Marathon.

“They were saying they were so pleased to be here ... It felt like it was going back to where it was before Covid.”

Tammy-Lee Holmes, from Glenholme Neighbourhood Support. Photo / Andrew Warner

Glenholme Neighbourhood Support’s Tammy-Lee Holmes said some residents reported the reduction of motel use for emergency housing had led to positive signs of improvement.

“While not yet back to the way things used to be, the changes made so far are an improvement to where we were 12 months ago. There are still issues at play in the Glenholme area; however, with a strong and supportive community, we hope for a continued positive path to restoration of the area.”

Where have the homeless gone?

Ministry of Social Development Bay of Plenty regional commissioner Mike Bryant said it was encouraging to see the number of households in emergency housing falling.

He said the “steadily falling” number in Rotorua was consistent with what was being seen nationally.

The number of households in emergency housing nationwide peaked at 4983 in November 2021 and was 3342 by December 2022.

Ministry of Social Development Bay of Plenty regional commissioner Mike Bryant. Photo / Andrew Warner

Bryant said there had been a lot of hard work behind the scenes supporting families to move into private rentals, transitional housing, contracted emergency housing or public housing. Changes in the rental market might also have contributed to a reduction of new people coming into emergency housing as well as an increase in the benefit amount which might have meant more people could afford private rentals, he said.

However, he said there would still be a need for emergency housing while the housing crisis remained.

Bryant said the Government made a significant investment in Rotorua, including increasing the supply of transitional and public homes and funding more staff.

Figures provided to the Rotorua Daily Post by Kāinga Ora showed it built 46 new public homes in Rotorua last year. Overall, the number of public homes rose by 37 (from 678 to 715). Nine homes were demolished as they were not deemed suitable.

While there had been no policy change regarding people moving to Rotorua emergency housing, Bryant said they always asked for “valid and clear reason before any emergency housing support was provided for people to relocate from outside of someone’s region”.

During the resource consent submission process, a Rotorua Lakes Council consultant planner Craig Batchelar said, in a report, there had been a strong declining trend in the number of people being placed in motels.

Batchelar said the Ministry of Social Development had recognised the adverse effects of emergency housing in Rotorua and was working with the council in managing a reduction.

He said attention was being paid to limiting the placement of people living outside Rotorua into emergency housing in Rotorua and limiting the placement of people in mixed tourist accommodation and emergency housing “given its unsuitability and reputation effects on tourism”.

Bryant was asked to respond to Batchelar’s comments but said there was nothing further to add.

This week, a spokesman from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development said the drop of people in contracted emergency housing was partly a tribute to the hard work being done by all organisations involved in the homelessness response in Rotorua - “Te Pokapū community-led housing hub, Te Hau Ki Te Kāinga collective and all the other agencies that provide wraparound services for those who need housing”.

“The fact that this work is having a visible impact is encouraging for all the organisations involved in this work.”

The Rotorua Daily Post asked Rotorua Lakes Council if it intended to shut down the remaining non-contracted emergency housing motels given they didn’t have the proper resource consent according to the District Plan.

In response, council district development deputy chief executive Jean-Paul Gaston said it was undertaking a process with accommodation operators to ensure those who wished to continue providing emergency housing had the appropriate consent.

“Council is continuing to work through a phased and site-specific approach with any remaining non-tourist accommodation providers to address any relevant regulatory requirements. As we have stated previously, all premises operating activities requiring resource consent will be required to get one.”