Stephanie Worsop: Businesses not to blame for taking up houses

A perfect storm of circumstances have contributed to the housing crisis in Rotorua. Photo / File

COMMENT

It's easy to go around in circles when talking about Rotorua's housing shortage.

Just when you think you've got a solution to fix one problem contributing to the shortage, another rears its head, demanding attention.

The latest is the number of businesses operating out of residential houses. Highlighted by the Rotorua Daily Post this week, Rotorua Lakes Council confirmed it knew of about 180 businesses that are currently occupying and operating out of houses.

This has prompted some to say the council needs to do more to get these businesses to move into the CBD's empty shops, freeing those houses up for the families who desperately need them.

They have a point. We've got plenty of empty shops in the CBD and our increasing number of homeless and working poor show we need more houses for our residents.

But this issue, like short-term rentals and a lack of new builds, came about because in the years Rotorua wasn't growing, they didn't pose a problem. In fact, they were a way to survive in a near-dead city.

Now, after a perfect storm of circumstances about four years ago, officials are scrambling to fix a housing crisis that has largely got away on us.

Years of stagnation were suddenly and ferociously shattered by a boom in the housing market, rising business confidence and an increasing population.

What once were godsends have become major headaches that are hard to fix.

Some say the council needs to do more to get businesses to move into the CBD's empty shops, freeing residential houses up for families who desperately need them. Photo / File

The businesses using these houses haven't done anything wrong and with the issues facing our CBD at the moment, including parking, low foot traffic and aggressive loiterers, I don't blame them for not wanting to move into the CBD.

And while the council says it's looking at ways to incentivise businesses to move into the inner-city, the businesses the Rotorua Daily Post spoke to said they weren't enough.

In my opinion, it appears there's been a whole lot of talking about the issues, having meetings about the issues and identifying the issues and not a whole lot of solving the issues.

These things take time and there are no quick fixes - I appreciate that and don't envy the council's job - but there comes a point when you have to stop and ask: what is actually being done?

The time for talking is over. The shortage will only get worse if officials don't start acting now.