Emergency housing is becoming entrenched on Rotorua's main road - Fenton Street. Video / RNZ
Lives turned upside down, ‘zombie movie’ scenes, businesses on the brink of going bust and shop workers locking their doors between customers, fearing for their safety. Rotorua residents have told a panel of commissioners deciding the future of emergency housing in Rotorua why they want ‘MSD Mile’ gone and Rotorua’s golden gateway known as ‘Motel Mile’ on Fenton St restored. Kelly Makiha reports.
Through tears, broken voices and powerful words, Rotorua locals living and working near emergency housing motels said they were bearing the brunt of threats, violence and intimidation, and made heartfelt pleas to not extend the “chaotic” system.
The hearing, which started on Monday before three independent commissioners, has heard submissions from the applicant - the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development - and the Rotorua Lakes Council.
Retired police officer Gary Smith. Photo / Mead Norton
Yesterday, locals and members of resident lobby group Restore Rotorua had their chance to be heard.
They said they do not want resource consents granted to 13 motels that would allow them to secure emergency housing contracts for up to the next five years.
The motels seeking resource consent for longer-term emergency housing. Photo / Andrew Warner
Fenton St business owner Donna Walsh told the hearing she had to lock the doors of their fashion store, Willow Boutique, between customers because they felt unsafe.
There were regular instances of intimidation inside and outside the shop as well as serious violence needing police attention outside the store.
"We have to keep an eye out to see who is coming to let them in and then lock the door again."
She said it was embarrassing having to explain their actions to people who weren't locals.
"I just feel so sad for our beautiful city. In two years, this is how it's become."
Carolyne Hall addresses commissioners. Photo / Mead Norton
Resident Carolyne Hall described, at times through tears, how she and her husband built their home on Holland St 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.
"We have for 20 years been planning for his future wellbeing. We now question decisions we have made. We have to decide whether we live here or move on."
Six immediate neighbours had moved and she and her family were the "last ones standing".
She described the system as "chaotic and confusing" and a "systemic failure". She criticised the government ministries for, in her view, not adequately consulting with the right iwi groups.
Restore Rotorua chairman Trevor Newbrook said the organisation, which has about 200 members, did not want the consents granted and wanted to stop people from outside Rotorua moving into the city's emergency housing.
He said he found "unbelievable" the continued "denials" of the council, Government departments, MPs and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern - whom he said was recorded as saying it was a "perception" people came from out of town.
He said the Ministry of Social Development's report released this year showed a third of those in emergency housing were not living in Rotorua in the 30 days before entering a motel.
He challenged the data collection method as being too easy for people to claim they were from Rotorua.
He read from a media report that quoted a council official saying five to 10 families were coming to Rotorua each week with family harm safety plans.
Newbrook said those families were high-risk, had complex needs and - according to police he said he had spoken to - did not have any association with Rotorua.
He told the commissioners to be mindful of judging the physical appearances of the motels from their brief site visits on Monday, saying if they had come a week or two earlier it would have been different.
Newbrook said there had been a noticeable recent tidy-up of the motels, including lawns mowed, rubbish cleared and properties cleaned.
His voice broke and he had to pause when the told the commissioners his daughter, son-in-law and four young grandchildren moved to Nelson because they felt Rotorua was no longer safe.
"Sorry if I'm breaking up but that's my four grandchildren driven out of their home town."
‘We feel we have been sacrificed’
Retired police officer Gary Smith. Photo / Mead Norton
Retired superintendent and former Bay of Plenty police district commander Gary Smith addressed the commissioners with crime data that showed calls for service for police around Fenton St had increased dramatically from 2018 to 2022.
Smith said they had to move to Cambridge in February after his disabled son could no longer could live independently in his Glenholme house.
"Sorry, but there's a bit emotion about this. He has lost his rights, he has lost his independence and we are rebuilding our lives. We feel we have been sacrificed and that we don't count."
Smith said police colleagues told him the people they dealt with in the motels were often from out of town.
He said his colleagues told him the city had about 100 rough sleepers prior to the Covid-19 outbreak so Smith questioned where the people were coming from if not from outside Rotorua.
"Rotorua has 50 motels (in emergency housing) and Auckland has 100. Rotorua has 1.5 per cent of New Zealand's population but has 9 to 10 per cent of the emergency housing population. It's disproportionate. We can't understand where all these people have come from suddenly."
Watchdog Security chief executive officer Brett Wilson said despite claims most people were local, it was his view a "significant portion" of those in the motels were from out of town.
For example, his police colleagues had told him about a Palmerston North man recently released from serving a prison sentence for two serious crimes and now living in a Rotorua motel.
He said he and his staff dealt with several instances of family violence from people in motels and he spoke to Central Mall shop workers who said they were victims of shoplifting about three times a day and when they followed the perpetrators, they went to the nearby motels.
The city's police and medical support resources were also impacted and the Government had not given additional resources to compensate.
"We have a lot of interaction with police but in the last 12 months the ability of police has dropped off because they are so tied up with family violence and drug activity in emergency housing."
He said contacts at Rotorua Hospital had said the emergency department was "clogged up" with people from emergency housing as many of them did not have a GP.
Wilson said he had spoken to some people in the motels - many of whom did not want to go on record for fear of retaliation - who told him they don't like the way the contracted motels were being run.
He described security plans at the motels as "woefully inadequate" and was concerned about some of the people being employed in security roles.
He said he had been alerted to an unlicensed Black Power security officer who had his licence declined because of his criminal record.
Residents speak out
Former resident Rolly Rolston told the commissioners after 35 years he had to move to Pāpāmoa because he no longer felt safe. He said he was subject to racial abuse and threatening behaviour.
"Homeless have a right to live here (the) same as I do but they have the right to treat people with respect (the) same as I do. I am ex-army and I'm not scared, but I felt for my safety."
He estimated his Carnot St home sold for $100,000 less than what it would have prior to the motel changes.
Glenholme resident Ryan Holmes congratulated the council on the "amazing clean-up" before the hearing started. He said graffiti was gone, lawns were mowed and trolleys and rubbish picked up.
In his view: "It is all to create an impression all is well on MSD Mile. If you had been here a week ago, you would have been shocked."
Christina Phillips, a retired teacher with over 34 years' experience and Rotorua resident of more than 30 years, said she was concerned about the risk to the learning and development of children in central Rotorua emergency housing motels, including there being little to no play equipment or green space for children.
She believed there was no goodwill from the moteliers making big money out of emergency housing to put any of it back into providing safe play environments for children.
Glenholme resident Rayna Bell said she made a submission because she felt passionate about Rotorua and was saddened to see the state of the motels while out walking her dog.
She described an unwarranted and unregistered car with no wheels, mattresses being thrown outside, trolleys and rubbish - including chop bones - on the footpath.
"The motels get a lot of money but they don't put money back into making them nice and tidy... My children live overseas and come back and say 'what has happened to Rotorua, it is so shabby'," Bell said.
"We have to laugh about it now but we wake up in the morning to the first siren and say 'welcome to siren city, here we go again'."
Business’ plight
Urbano Bistro owner Richard Sewell described the situation as a "catastrophe" and said Rotorua's reputation was "in tatters".
He said it was hard not to get emotional because he and his wife, Julie, were born and bred in Rotorua.
He said since writing his submission when he had 17 staff, he now had eight and was struggling to find staff. His revenue was down 45 per cent.
Hennessy's Irish Bar owner Reg Hennessy said he saw the violence, drug dealing and intimidation not only around his central city pub but when he walked his dog along Fenton St while living in Sophia St - at a home he has since sold out of safety concerns.
He said gangs had "mushroomed" in Rotorua and he often drove home on Fenton St at 11pm and saw little kids playing on the road.
"You name it - I've seen it."
Commission chairman David Hill. Photo / Andrew Warner
He described seeing drugged-out people stumbling around the central city as being like something from a "zombie movie".
Duck Tours owner Trevor Weir said its business operated along Fenton St and they had seen people running down the street with hammers and drugged and drunk people outside their store. One person tried to jump on the side of the Duck Tours vehicle as it moved away on Fenton St and drivers had been attacked.
John Hamill runs a trout fishing tourism business and said clients were coming for a day instead of three to five.
"If this goes on for five years, you can kiss goodbye the jewel in the crown of New Zealand tourism."
Final plea
A lawyer representing Restore Rotorua, Vanessa Hamm, told commissioners she was "dismayed" to hear earlier evidence that suggested having a group such as Restore Rotorua "magnified" the issues residents faced.
She urged them to give the residents' evidence "significant weight", pointing out that the ministry and council's lawyers and expert witnesses were not from Rotorua and neither were the commissioners.
The commissioners, David Hill, Sheena Tepani and Greg Hill will hear more submissions today and Friday before reconvening Monday, October 31, finishing on Tuesday, November 1.
