Out-of-town homeless overwhelming Rotorua's emergency health services, GP tells resource consent hearing

Rotorua doctor Johanna Meyer. Photo / Andrew Warner

After-hours clinics are overwhelmed dealing with people in emergency housing motels who don't have GPs and appear to have come from out-of-town, a hearing has been told.

Rotorua GP Johanna Meyer spoke yesterday at the final day of a hearing before three commissioners deciding the future of 13 contracted emergency housing motels.

But despite claims from Meyer and others that expressed concern about numerous people appearing to suddenly arrive in Rotorua - they believed from other places - and Rotorua catering for 10 per cent of the nation's homeless population, a ministry lawyer has denied out-of-town people were being brought to Rotorua's motels.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development lawyer's statement at the hearing was met by yells of "rubbish" from members of the public.

The ministry has applied to the Rotorua Lakes Council for resource consent to allow the 13 motels to continue to offer emergency housing for up to five years.

Currently, no emergency housing in motels is permitted under the District Plan as they are consented only for short-term visitor stays.

Chairman of the trio of independent commissioners reviewing the applications, David Hill, said they would weigh up the more than 3600 submissions before releasing their decision before Christmas.

Meyer, who worked on a rostered basis with other GPs at Lakes Primecare, said the system had always coped for out-of-towners, holidaymakers and international visitors.

However, she said it was different now because the out-of-towners - on some days more than half of the appointments for a day - had Rotorua addresses at emergency housing motels and didn't have a GP.

She said that slowed the process down for doctors as they didn't have the patients' records and each appointment took longer.

She claimed the emergency department at Rotorua Hospital had the same issue and that was contributing to at times large wait times of up to six hours.

Logan Okiwi Shipgood tells commissioners he doesn't want ongoing contracted emergency housing as his neighbours. Photo / Andrew Warner

Rotorua artist Logan Okiwi Shipgood told the hearing he was forced to close his Whakarewarewa gallery and do a different job because of the unruly behaviour from those in surrounding contracted emergency housing.

Shipgood said he was aware of some Rotorua homeless before Covid struck and some were his relations.

But he said those in motels were different and appeared almost overnight.

"The number is staggering. Send those people back to where they have come from. We should look after our homeless here. Those mayors in those cities, let them deal with it. Covid was used as an excuse."

Speaking to their submission against ongoing contracted emergency housing are (from left) Logan Okiwi Shipgood, Kauri Makaio Shipgood, 10, and Dianna Raukawa Doughty. Photo / Andrew Warner

His partner, Dianna Doughty, said their 10-year-old son could no longer walk down the road to school because there were "too many weirdos walking around the streets".

She said some seemed to be on P "and their behaviour was just so unpredictable".

Ministry lawyer Nick Whittington said the suggestion people had been bussed to Rotorua for emergency housing was "clearly a rumour".

"Homeless people from around New Zealand have not been brought to Rotorua."

When members of the public interjected, Hill said the public needed to give Whittington respect or they would be asked to leave.

Whittington said the ministry "category rejected" the suggestion people had been brought there by bus or otherwise.

"MSD's regional commissioner [Mike Bryant] is on public record ... categorically denying that. That's an FAQ on the council's webpage rejecting any suggestion that people have been brought here by bus."

Whittington said he didn't know where the idea had come from but it was clearly a rumour or piece of circulated information so he did not blame submitters for thinking it was fact.

"That does not make it true."

He said, however, the Ministry of Social Development's emergency housing programme was not about location and did not restrict people from moving areas.

"The Government cannot limit that freedom without lawful justification."

He said statistics from a Ministry of Social Development study into where the homeless had come from could be relied on as accurate.

That survey showed two-thirds of those in emergency housing said they were from Rotorua.

The method used to gather the data included classifying people as locals if they had lived in Rotorua 30 days before living in the emergency housing accommodation or had links to Rotorua. It had been described by previous submitters as "flawed" and "devious trickery".

Whittington said Rotorua had the lowest building rates of anywhere in New Zealand in previous years.

"And yet there seems to be this utter surprise at the numbers of people needing housing here and that 65 to 90 per cent must have been bussed in because they didn't originate here."

Whittington also rejected a suggestion there had been a big clean-up in Rotorua just prior to the commissioner's site visits at the start of the hearing, which had been claimed by previous submitters.

"There has been no directed or orchestrated clean up."

He said it was more likely locals were only now just noticing the improvements that had been made in recent weeks and months.

Rotorua resident Neil Searancke. Photo / Andrew Warner

Earlier in the day, Rotorua resident Neil Searancke told commissioners he had returned to Rotorua four years ago from overseas with his family. He described the use of motels for housing as a "horrific experiment".

"This idea of using motels as housing was a bad idea three years ago, a bad idea today and will be a bad idea in five years' time."

He said he had seen his friends leave, neighbours suffer and he had gone through all the stages of grief for Rotorua. He said he was no longer mad but was "profoundly saddened".

In his "50-odd years of life" he had never been an activist or had presented a submission but he felt this was too important not to.

"You have a decision that is actually about life and death of a city."

Newly elected Rotorua Lakes Councillor Don Paterson. Photo / Andrew Warner

Newly-elected Rotorua Lakes Councillor Don Paterson, who spoke as an individual not a councillor, told the commissioners he wanted Rotorua's events reputation restored.

He said there were about 54 motels and camping grounds offering emergency housing, including contracted, non-contracted and mixed-use and that was taking away too many beds from large groups wanting to come to Rotorua for sporting events.

He said the latest election results, which he said largely showed those who campaigned on ending emergency housing were voted in, was the closest thing Rotorua had to a referendum on the issue.

In closing the hearing, Hill particularly thanked Restore Rotorua and its chairman Trevor Newbrook for bringing the issues to the fore, saying it had been a "serious service" for Rotorua.

He also thanked the media saying its coverage had been "very useful" in keeping the community informed of what was going on.