Motels cost $97k a day, but need falls

Government-funded emergency hotel stays are starting to drop off, but are still costing the Government more than $97,000 a day.

New figures from the Ministry of Social Development show that in the last three months $8.96 million was given out to cover short seven-day motel stays for families or individuals in dire need.

The money made up 9159 grants, and several families claimed the grant more than once.

This is a drop on the previous three-month period of April-June when a record $12.6m was spent on

11,446 grants.

It’s about level with the $8.8m spent in the first three months of

2017.

Outgoing social housing minister Amy Adams said the numbers had peaked mid-year.

‘‘While we’ve spent a lot in the last quarter we’re also seeing that that has peaked now, and there are some really pretty good signs that that is dropping, which is exactly what we expected,’’ Adams said in July.

‘‘This is exactly what we wanted to happen but it takes time to build 1400-odd transitional houses, and the motel grants have been a way for us to bridge that.’’

Transitional homes are traditional homes that people can access while they wait for social housing.

When the Government introduced the policy in 2016, it budgeted just $2m a year for the scheme, which rapidly became oversubscribed.

Over the last three months

285,485 individuals or families made use of the accommodation supplement, up slightly from

284,572 in the previous quarter. MSD gave out $16.5m in accommodation-related hardship assistance, up slightly from $16.3m in the previous three months.

While far more hardship assistance grants were given out to cover food costs, accommodationrelated assistance cost more money.

Labour’s housing spokesman Phil Twyford could not be reached for comment.

He has criticised the motel stays in the past as a sign of failure but not promised to stop them.

Labour promised during the campaign to build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 years, a promise which appears to have remained intact during coalition negotiations.

The housing market has slowed in Auckland in recent months, and Trade Me says Auckland renting costs have slightly dipped.

But house prices remain high. At the end of September the median house price in Auckland was $845,000, about nine times the median annual income for Aucklanders.

Experts consider a multiple of three times to be affordable.