Fighting a ‘vicious cycle’
Motels not the long-term answer for the city’s homeless, says prime minister
Homeless people living in the city’s motels is not the long game — the Government wants them in housing, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says.
But she would rather have “shelter than no shelter at all” for those in need.
Ardern visited Rotorua yesterday with Minister of Health Andrew Little and Seniors Associate Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall to launch Tiakiwha¯nau, a pilot programme supporting young parents needing extra help.
The Government allocated $10 million as part of the Budget 2019 Mental Wellbeing Package for three pilot programmes for young parents.
Tiaki Wha¯nau, in the Lakes District Health board area, was the first of these pilots.
In an interview with the Rotorua Daily Post about the homeless, Ardern said the plan was always to provide more public housing.
“We have always wanted to be out of motels, but the choice for us is we would rather shelter than no shelter at all. The long term plan is to withdraw.”
She said providing public housing and support was a “big focus” for the Government to ensure motels were open again when possible.
The Government was working hard to ensure tenants were supported and did not get trapped in the “vicious cycle” of being homeless time and time again, she said.
When asked about the Ministry of Social Development paying high rents to landlords to house homeless and “moving the problem around”, she said she would dig further into whether this was an issue locally.
“Building, building, building” was the answer to the city’s homeless problem and housing shortage, she said.
The Government had a plan to provide 18,000 public houses nationally by 2024, increase transitional housing numbers and address the lack of housing stock in general, she said.
To do this, she said it would support developers as “more houses in the market had an impact”. During the Global Financial Crisis home building approvals halved.
“We’ve tried to get in front of that this time.”
The Government had set up a