Govts have spent $16.5m on motels to house homeless
Successive Governments have spent almost $16.5 million over the past four years on buying motels to convert into emergency housing. At the same time, the amount of money the Government has spent on emergency housing grants has increased dramatically — to close to $1m a day.
National says this shows New Zealand’s housing system is “bursting at the seams”.
But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the previous Government needs to take some responsibility for the issues with New Zealand’s housing.
“We knew during Covid-19, in particular, we needed to make it easier for people to access government support, and we have done that,” she told the House in early December.
Newly released data shows that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has bought seven motels since 2016.
Three are in the East Coast and Hawke’s Bay region and collectively cost almost $6m. All three were purchased in 2017.
One in Palmerston North was bought for $1.1m in 2018; $3.3m was spent this year on a motel in Porirua; and in 2016 the Government purchased an Auckland motel for $2.7m.
The most expensive purchase was in 2018 when the Government bought a motel in Blenheim for $3.6m.
The seven motels were purchased under both National and Labour-led Governments.
A spokesperson
for
housing
agency Ka¯inga Ora said the motels had been bought to meet the urgent need to provide a warm, dry and safe place for people and families to stay while they search for a more permanent place to live.
National’s housing spokeswoman Nicola Willis said the Government’s motel purchasing programme is just one piece of New Zealand’s housing problems.
“These motel purchases show a housing system that is bursting at the seams,” she said.
The latest data from HUD shows $83m had been spent on emergency housing special needs grants in the third quarter of this year.
Across 90 days, that works out to be $922,000 HUD spends a day on emergency housing.
But, speaking in the House, Ardern said National needs to take responsibility for its part in NZ’S housing woes.
“I do acknowledge that under the National Government they, in fact, cut the [housing] register so roughly 4500 were taken off it.
“What we have now is a much more accurate picture of need. Imagine the situation had we not continued to increase government support.” — NZ Herald