When Covid-19 hit hard, Rotorua\u2019s famous gateway, the motels of Fenton St, went from holiday to emergency housing. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
Davies attributed the decline to increased public housing, new community housing developments and efforts to move families into permanent homes sooner.<\/p>\n
\u201cSoftening rental prices may have also contributed to the reduction in emergency housing demand by making the private rental market more accessible for low-income wh\u0101nau,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
At the height of the Government\u2019s emergency housing response, 62 Rotorua motels and hotels were used for families in need of housing, according to Mayor Tania Tapsell.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m proud of how far Rotorua has come; the days of the emergency housing disaster are now well and truly behind us,\u201d Tapsell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a huge achievement and reflects the collaborative work to deliver better housing solutions from council, government agencies, iwi, service providers and our wider community.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a speech at last week\u2019s Local Government New Zealand annual conference at Rotorua\u2019s Energy Events Centre, Tapsell said the issue generated \u201cover 1000 negative media articles and interviews\u201d and posed a significant risk to the district\u2019s tourism and hospitality sector.<\/p>\n
Despite the sharp decline, the council and MSD say emergency housing remains an important part of the wider housing system.<\/p>\n
![\"Rotorua](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/rotorua-mayor-tania-tapsell-A37KEOJYHBAAZBO5WSLED5MHXU.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell. (Source: Laura Smith)<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough the eligibility criteria and processes for emergency housing were tightened in August 2024, it remains available as a last resort for people who meet the criteria and have nowhere else to go,\u201d Davies said.<\/p>\n
Tapsell said Rotorua still needed \u201can appropriate level of safe and well managed emergency housing\u201d.<\/p>\n
The council\u2019s destination development manager Jean-Paul Gaston said the proposed changes were not intended to prevent motels from becoming emergency housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIntermittent use of visitor accommodation for emergency generally raises few issues and has always been part of our housing system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIssues have arisen when there is a larger scale, dedicated residential use of visitor accommodation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gaston said the proposed approach would allow each situation to be assessed on its merits.<\/p>\n
The independent hearing commissioner has reserved a decision on Plan Change 10.<\/p>\n
Local Democracy Reporting is local-body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n
The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including an Australian MP is attacked with a car, rare footage of the world\u2019s second largest animal, and the couple going viral for dining during a riot. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rotorua\u2019s emergency housing footprint has shrunk to a single motel accommodating about a dozen households. By Mathew Nash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9437,111,43,139,69,135,1756],"class_list":["post-635883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-homelessness","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-politics","tag-tauranga-bay-of-plenty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635883","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=635883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}