$16.5m on motels for housing

WELLINGTON: Successive governments have spent almost $16.5 million over the past four years buying motels and converting them into emergency housing.

At the same time, the amount of money the Government has been spending on emergency housing grants has increased to close to $1 million a day.

National said yesterday it showed New Zealand’s housing system was ‘‘bursting at the seams’’.

But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the previous government needed to take some responsibility.

‘‘We knew during Covid19, 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 showed the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) had bought seven motels since 2016.

Three were in the East Coast and Hawke’s Bay region and collectively cost almost $6 million. All three were bought in 2017.

In 2016, the Government bought an Auckland motel for $2.7 million, paid $1.1 million for a Palmerston North motel in 2018 and spent $3.3 million to buy a Porirua motel this year.

The most expensive purchase was in 2018, when the Government bought a motel in Blenheim for $3.6 million.

The seven motels were bought under both National and Labourled governments.

Housing agency Kainga Ora said the motels were bought to meet the urgent need to provide a warm, dry and safe place for people and families to stay.

A spokesman said the motels had been upgraded to make them suitable for people and families to stay for a short time.

There were 80 places across the seven motels. In comparison there are 66,000 state homes in New Zealand.

The latest data from HUD shows $83 million had been spent on emergency housing special needs grants in the third quarter of last year. — The New Zealand Herald