Rents drive mentally ill southwards
The super city’s super-sized rents are driving mental health patients south.
Auckland’s housing crisis has seen weekly rents in some suburbs top $600, pushing out increasing numbers of people on fixed incomes.
Derek Wright, Waikato DHB interim chief executive, as well as executive director of mental health and addictions, said patients were being referred from Auckland to towns in the South Waikato, King Country and Coromandel – putting extra pressure on the region’s health services.
Driving the exodus is Auckland’s soaring rents, Wright said.
Tauranga had experienced a similar influx.
‘‘In the United States, they talk about the Greyhound concept, where you get a single bus ticket to go on a Greyhound bus to another state,’’ Wright said.
‘‘I don’t think it’s that. I think it’s people genuinely choosing [to shift].
‘‘They can’t afford to live in Auckland where you pay 400, 500, 600 bucks a week in rent, whereas in places like Te Kuiti, you’re paying a couple of hundred dollars a week or less.’’
Wright planned to talk to Auckland colleagues about the patient influx, but said his options are limited.
‘‘If the person has chosen not to live in Auckland, there’s not much we can do. But it is going to start to put pressure on some of our rural areas, not just in accommodation, but often these people have complex health issues as well. If someone moves into our area to live, then we are obliged to offer them the services.’’
Wright said sustained pressure on the region’s mental health and addictions services has become the norm.
The demand is particularly noticeable at the Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre, with its 53-bed inpatient adult wards regularly tipped into overload.
Some patients are being kept in the centre because they don’t have accommodation in the community.
Complicating the problem is that patients sometimes lose their accommodation after being admitted to the centre.
Wright said staff are working with other agencies, looking at whether patients could be put up in private accommodation.
The idea is the agency would guarantee the landlord doesn’t have to deal with the tenant.
Wright said there is a perception Hamilton lacks affordable rental accommodation, but a search of Trade Me found 71 listings with a weekly rent under $300.
A further 21 listings had weekly rents under $200.
Board member Mary Anne Gill said if houses had rents for less than $200, then it could be assumed the houses were not insulated.
Meanwhile, Waikato DHB staff will present a paper to board members in October discussing replacement options for the Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre.
In April 2016, the DHB announced it would replace the mental health facility.
Both the Health Ministry and the DHB agreed the current building puts patients and public safety at risk.
Wright said the Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre was based on an outdated institutional model and also is not big enough.
The proposed expansion of Waikeria Prison, from 740 to 3000 beds, would drive additional demands on the centre’s forensic services, he said.
‘‘We’ve looked at the Henry Bennett Centre site as it is and [asked], can we do something with that, and we don’t think we can,’’ Wright said.
‘‘Can we take the site where it is and expand on and add something else on? We think that’s possibly going to be difficult.’’
Wright said staff had looked at greenfield sites as well as joint ventures.