Lockdown hard in emergency housing
Covid measures make life in cramped conditions more difficult
Living in emergency housing motels during lockdown has left some of those trapped inside their bubbles saying: “I want out of here”.
About 400 households live in emergency housing in Rotorua and now they are not only confined to their small motel units, but they also can’t socialise with others at their complexes.
But one Rotorua motelier said so far the guests at her motel were coping fine as life in lockdown wasn’t that much different for them.
When New Zealand was plunged into lockdown in March last year, all rough sleepers were rounded up by the Government and put into motels to ensure they could isolate safely without the risk of spreading Covid-19.
As of June this year, Ministry of
Social Development figures showed there were still 400 households getting emergency housing support in Rotorua.
Midway Motel manager, who only wanted to be known as Ann, said everyone at their motel was coping well so far with lockdown.
She said most of the families and couples in their units kept to themselves anyway so she didn’t expect any of them to have much difficulty isolating.
“There was only one room that had visitors all the time which has obviously stopped now, but everyone else doesn’t really come out much. It’s not like they are going out and living their life to the fullest anyway.”
But one woman, who has lived in three different emergency housing motels in Rotorua since the start of the year, said lockdown was going to be tough.
“It makes me realise even more I want to be back in my own house. I want out of there.”
The woman, who was too embarrassed about living in emergency housing to be named, said as it was, there were people who were “going crazy” in the motels and had to be sedated or taken away.
The woman said her other family members were staying at a different emergency housing motel that didn’t have cooking facilities so she was cooking meals at her motel and walking them to her family’s motel.
She said she wasn’t allowed to take them to her family members and had to leave them outside for them to collect.
A long-time Rotorua “streetie”, who also didn’t want to be named, said he was thrilled he got out of emergency housing a month ago before this latest lockdown.
The man — who dislikes being called homeless as it was his philosphy he was never homeless because home was where the heart was — said he had been living in emergency housing for two and a half years.
He said cramped motel rooms were tough enough without the added restriction of not being able to “have a yarn” with people in the neighbouring motel unit.
Percy Poharama from Feeding Rotorua Charitable Trust said he was no longer taking food to Kuirau Park each night, where the needy would collect their meals in containers.
He said he had obtained the addresses of all those in need and was now delivering.
He said he had no contact with the people, he wore protective clothing and he usually left the meals at the gates. He said he was feeding both those in emergency housing and genuine locals struggling to make ends meet.
Gina and Elmer Peiffer, who run charity food distribution service
Rotorua Whakaora, said they were getting more food donated because businesses had been forced to close.
Elmer Peiffer said it was lucky the food streams had increased, as they expected to be feeding more people in need as lockdown pressures gripped society. At present they were sending between 100 and 200 individual bags of food to households each day.
People needing the bags were still able to walk to their Depot St premises and collect the bags, but there were strict social distancing protocols in place.
Food was also being collected in bulk from their teams in areas including Mamaku, Mangakino, Tokoroa, Maketu¯ and Little Waihi, Murupara and Kaingaroa.
For Visions of a Helping Hand Charitable Trust, the lockdown this time around had been “a breeze”, founder Tiny Deane said.
Deane remembered last time as being “hard . . . it was the total unknown” and the many rough sleepers needed to be housed, cooked for and managed.
Now families were able to cook for themselves, and Deane said they had systems in place and were able to implement them as soon they heard the news.
So far none of the trust’s social workers or navigators had reported any unease among those in the motels, and he suspected it would stay this way.
Ministry of Social Development regional commissioner Mike Bryant said although the ministry’s service centres were currently closed, they could help at any time. While the ministry had not seen increased demand for emergency housing during lockdown, they stayed in touch with emergency housing suppliers and would call on them if needed.
“To further support our clients, case managers are proactively calling those in emergency housing to complete welfare checks.”
Anyone needing emergency housing should contact their nearest service centre either by freephone on 0800 559 009 or online through MYMSD.