{"id":142240,"date":"2025-11-19T02:47:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T02:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/142240\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T02:47:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T02:47:09","slug":"emergency-housing-motels-end-in-rotorua-but-has-it-just-shifted-the-problem-elsewhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/142240\/","title":{"rendered":"Emergency housing motels end in Rotorua – but has it just shifted the problem elsewhere?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2023, National campaigned on ending emergency housing in Rotorua motels within two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cRotorua wh\u0101nau, businesses and mana whenua had been pleading for change for years. We listened and acted. We have restored safety, dignity and confidence to a city that was forced to absorb the consequences of a failed housing model,\u201d Potaka said.<\/p>\n

Referrals into emergency housing motels<\/a> ended on June 15 with agencies working \u201cintensively\u201d to secure permanent placements.<\/p>\n

The Ministry for Social Development and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development had worked with Visions of a Helping Hand, WERA Aotearoa Charitable Trust, Emerge Aotearoa, Ng\u0101ti Whakaue, Te Arawa, Restore Rotorua and the Rotorua Lakes Council to move every household into \u201cstable, secure homes\u201d.<\/p>\n

\" The emergency housing motels to close (clockwise from top left), Alpin Motel, Pohutu Lodge and Geneva Motel. Photos \/ Kelly Makiha<\/p>\n

Through partnership with Ng\u0101ti Whakaue, 240 affordable rental housing units were being built at Manawa Gardens.<\/p>\n

The remaining motels were now preparing to return to commercial operations, Potaka said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRotorua is finally back on the front foot, it is safer, stronger, and open for growth. Our government will keep backing Rotorua to reclaim its reputation, grow its tourism economy, strengthen its housing supply, and unlock new opportunities for the city,\u201d Potaka said.<\/p>\n

But Labour\u2019s housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said the announcement was \u201ctone deaf\u201d<\/a> and he did not know who Potaka was \u201ctrying to kid\u201d by celebrating.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one is pretending that emergency housing was the solution to the housing crisis, but it\u2019s a hell of a lot better than people sleeping on the streets. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd all the minister is doing today is celebrating shifting people out of emergency housing to in front of families\u2019 homes and businesses. That\u2019s it, and it\u2019s not much of a thing to celebrate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Labour'sLabour’s housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

McAnulty said he had recently visited Rotorua and counted eight homeless people in one block of the town centre.<\/p>\n

In January, Potaka announced the Government had met its target to reduce the overall number of households in emergency housing by 75% five years early.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Social Development had also tightened the gateway for those trying to access emergency housing.<\/p>\n

McAnulty said the Government was focusing on people that had left emergency housing but did not want to talk about the people that could not get in.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmergency housing was only ever intended to temporarily house people<\/a> while social houses were being built. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut let\u2019s look at what the Government are doing. K\u0101inga Ora are no longer expanding their numbers. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe funding that\u2019s gone to community housing providers is a fraction of what they were getting under the Labour Government, and people can\u2019t get into emergency housing, and now they\u2019ve closed them all together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no surprise that homelessness is now what frontline providers are saying the worst in living memory.\u201d<\/p>\n

-RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2023, National campaigned on ending emergency housing in Rotorua motels within two years. \u201cRotorua wh\u0101nau, businesses and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3013,12205,52000,15974,8127,96265,6871,42,3339,78,702,5511,96263,43,21311,1327,96264,223,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-142240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-but","tag-dexter","tag-elsewhere","tag-emergency","tag-end","tag-giles","tag-has","tag-headlines","tag-housing","tag-in","tag-it","tag-just","tag-motels","tag-news","tag-problem","tag-rotorua","tag-shifted","tag-the","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}