{"id":537473,"date":"2026-07-21T21:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T21:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/537473\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T21:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T21:04:10","slug":"rotorua-councillors-admit-pensioner-housing-failures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/537473\/","title":{"rendered":"Rotorua councillors admit pensioner housing failures"},"content":{"rendered":"

It also committed to a two-year \u201ctop-up\u201d contribution so tenants reliant solely on superannuation would be \u201cno worse off financially\u201d.<\/p>\n

The transition has since become contentious, with some residents continuing to campaign against the changes.<\/p>\n

In March, R\u0101whiti pensioner housing resident Mary Smith successfully challenged proposed rent increases<\/a>, and seven other cases are awaiting a Tenancy Tribunal hearing. <\/p>\n

Councillors Don Paterson and Trevor Maxwell both say they supported the move to partner with Emerge because they believed it would protect elderly tenants while creating a more sustainable model for ratepayers.<\/p>\n

But both now say the outcome has not met expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a portfolio we haven\u2019t handled very well at council,\u201d Maxwell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m disappointed and we must keep trying. They\u2019re human beings. They\u2019re our vulnerable and elderly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maxwell said early assurances had not been maintained.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight from the beginning, we were assured the tenants were the most important thing and that their rents wouldn\u2019t be more than what they\u2019d been paying, that kind of rhetoric,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s not been the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RotoruaRotorua councillor Trevor Maxwell. Photo \/ Andrew Warner<\/p>\n

Paterson was one of two councillors who voted against a review of the pensioner housing portfolio in July 2023.<\/p>\n

He later supported the partnership with Emerge after accepting the existing model was becoming increasingly difficult to sustain for both residents and ratepayers.<\/p>\n

Paterson said that decision was based on information that later proved inaccurate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were told this gave us the opportunity to do both things: look after our older people and make it affordable for ratepayers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA win-win for everyone, so we were told.\u201d<\/p>\n

In April, the council acknowledged that assurances around financial assistance for tenants had been made without consultation with the Ministry of Social Development.<\/p>\n

The ministry later advised that those financial assistance options were not available<\/a> in Rotorua as the council had anticipated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe information wasn\u2019t correct and had we known that it wasn\u2019t applicable, this outcome would have been a lot different,\u201d Paterson said.<\/p>\n

\"AA vacant unit at the Kahikatea St pensioner housing block. Photo \/ Mathew Nash<\/p>\n

Paterson said he did not blame council officers, saying staff had \u201cworked wonders\u201d to find a solution to a complex problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were so many roadblocks with what we were trying to achieve because of legislation and legalities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, we were caught between a rock and a hard place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paterson said the wellbeing of tenants remained one of his biggest concerns as a councillor.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople say, \u2018What keeps you awake at night?\u2019 This is one of them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does bother me that our elderly have been neglected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paterson said the stress created by uncertainty was particularly concerning for older residents.<\/p>\n

\"RotoruaRotorua councillor Don Paterson. Photo \/ Mathew Nash<\/p>\n

\u201cOur elderly, our older people need to be looked after,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve done their bit for the community, they\u2019ve paid their taxes, they\u2019ve paid their rates, they\u2019ve made their contributions and they need to be given some reverence.\u201d<\/p>\n

He stopped short of blaming the council alone, saying the issue reflected a wider societal problem.<\/p>\n

In April, council infrastructure and assets manager Stavros Michael said the move to market rents was necessary because the heavily subsidised portfolio had become financially unsustainable, creating a significant annual cost for ratepayers.<\/p>\n

He said the council was continuing to work with Emerge Aotearoa and the Ministry of Social Development to maximise tenants\u2019 entitlements within the limits of existing Government policy.<\/p>\n

Many residents have now received a subsidised rent rate to minimise the financial impact.<\/p>\n

He said the council \u201cis committed to better and more sustainable housing and support outcomes\u201d for tenants and ratepayers but that the tenants are the council\u2019s \u201cfirst priority\u201d.<\/p>\n

The future of the city\u2019s largest pensioner housing complex, Lucas Place, is now at the forefront of the council\u2019s pensioner portfolio changes<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The council is considering redevelopment, with many units considered beyond repair. The possibility has also attracted opposition from some residents, who are concerned about what it means for their future.<\/p>\n

Paterson said he hoped any redevelopment would deliver for pensioners with minimal stress or impact on their lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope we can have something that we can be proud of and that can house the people who need it most.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mathew Nash is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. He has previously written for SunLive, has been a regular contributor to RNZ and was a football reporter in the UK for eight years.<\/p>\n

\u2013 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It also committed to a two-year \u201ctop-up\u201d contribution so tenants reliant solely on superannuation would be \u201cno worse…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[37879,4500,26519,7558,96124,39539,43945,305,3339,76,26522,111,43,139,2551,69,1523,19525,11535,1327,2687,102],"class_list":["post-537473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-admit","tag-changes","tag-councillors","tag-councils","tag-disappointment","tag-expressed","tag-failures","tag-have","tag-housing","tag-issue","tag-keeps","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-night","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-pensioner","tag-portfolio","tag-rotorua","tag-saying","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537473","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=537473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}