Twelve of the 13 contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Photo / Andrew Warner
Fewer homeless people staying in Rotorua’s motels have prompted calls for the Government to stop funding so many motels and instead return some to the market for visitors.
It comes as Rotorua moteliers say they are so busy and double booked, some visitors desperate for rooms are asking to sleep on their conference room floors.
The Rotorua Temporary Housing Dashboard figures are now released monthly by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development as part of the Rotorua Housing Accord, an agreement signed in December between the Government, Rotorua Lakes Council and iwi.
The figures have been steadily dropping since the start of last year, and sharply dropping since the end of last year.
While there was a slight rise in February, the overall drop has meant there is nearly half the number of people in emergency housing motels than there was this time last year.
There are 375 households in contracted and non-contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua compared with 708 households in March last year.
The Rotorua Daily Post has previously reported the 13 contracted motels had capacity for 868 people in 297 motel units. The latest dashboard figures show there are 195 households in them.
Additional to the 13 contracted motels, the Government contracts two Covid-19 response motels - Four Canoes Hotel and Tuscany Villas.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development has previously said Four Canoes Hotel has 86 units. Lifewise chief executive officer Haehaetu Barrett, whose organisation has the social support contract to look after those in the hotel, told the Rotorua Daily Post last month there were only four people left in the hotel. It has previously been reported many were moved out because of health and safety concerns.
The dashboard said there were 24 households in Four Canoes and Tuscany Villas. The ministry had previously told the Rotorua Daily Post it contracted 30 rooms at Tuscany Villas. This means out of the 116 Covid-19 response motel units, there were 24 households staying in them.
Wylie Court manager Judith Cunningham said her Fenton St motel was constantly having to turn people away, which was upsetting for Rotorua as a destination when she looked around contracted motels nearby and saw they had so many empty rooms.
“We need five more motels. I am double booked. People ask to sleep on the conference room floors.”
She said next week alone she was short of 15 rooms for her regular corporate clients because of school holidays and touring sports groups.
“It’s insane, we just can’t keep up.”
Kerris Brown, who runs a large Airbnb and holiday home complex in Rotorua, said she consistently had too many visitors compared with rooms and business, in general, was much busier than pre-Covid 19.
“Any time you have an event in Rotorua, bang, not enough accommodation again. Yep, we have lost motels, but we have also lost holiday homes to long-term renters or sold to private buyers.”
Part of her clientele included a family who is living with their family until they move overseas because they can’t find a short-term rental. They come to her property for short stays to have a break from the cramped conditions with family members.
RotoruaNZ chief executive Andrew Wilson said Rotorua needed more high-quality rooms to be in line with its aspirations of being a world-class visitor destination.
“Occupancy figures show that aside from long weekends where we have almost reached full capacity, there are still rooms available for visitors.”
He said he’d like to see contracted motels upgraded when they eventually returned to the visitor market.
“Our recommendation, should motels and hotels that are currently contracted for emergency housing return to the visitor economy, is that they reinvest back into their properties to support the wider aspirations of the industry around ensuring a positive, memorable visitor experience.”
Wilson said it had always been the organisation’s view that motel accommodation was not suitable for anyone to be living in long-term and more houses were needed.
Lobby group Restore Rotorua chairman Trevor Newbrook said while he was generally pleased with the progress, there seemed to be a lot of empty beds at contracted emergency hotels that could be used for visitors who in turn spent money at attractions and hospitality venues.
He said it would be better to end the contracts for some of those motels and return them to the visitor market to ensure the Government wasn’t paying for unused units.
The Rotorua Daily Post asked the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development for a cost breakdown. In response, ministry chief executive Ben Dalton said the monthly average accommodation cost per place, or motel unit, in the 13 contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua over the last nearly two years was about $4500, which equated to $160 a day.
The monthly average accommodation cost per place in the two Covid-19 response motels in Rotorua varied over the last three years between $2000 and $3000. Dalton said it was cheaper than the national monthly average accommodation cost per motel unit in Covid-19 response motels at $5200.
Dalton said while it contracted 297 units across the 13 motels, the 195 households recorded as being in the motels might take up more than 195 units depending on their household make-up.
He said occupancy numbers varied day to day and some units were used for on-site management or were undergoing repairs.
When asked what he thought of Newbrook’s suggestion to reduce the number of motels, Dalton said the ministry was committed to working with government agencies in Rotorua to ensure people could get access to warm, dry accommodation.
He said the housing accord aimed to reduce the use of emergency housing in Rotorua to near zero as soon as possible.
“As the number of whānau requiring temporary housing in Rotorua decreases, [the ministry] expects to review the number of contracted emergency housing motels needed to house whānau and to support them to transition to permanent housing outcomes.
He said one of the conditions of the resource consents, granted for two years from December 15, was the establishment of a community liaison group. Part of its role was to discuss the exit strategy for contracted emergency housing. The group met for the first time on March 9.
The Rotorua Daily Post asked the ministry what Covid-19 response motels were and when the contracts ended.
In response, Dalton, of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, said that when Covid-19 lockdowns struck, the ministry secured funding for 1600 housing places to provide suitable accommodation for rough sleepers and meet immediate housing needs to reduce the pandemic’s impact.
He said the ministry worked with housing support service providers to reduce the number of Covid-19 motels across the country. Contracts on Four Canoes Motel and Tuscany Villas - which collectively house 30 adults and nine children - end on June 30 this year.
Boxing Day shoppers in Rotorua and Tauranga are happy to be spending.