What did the state do to keep a little boy safe?
The murder of a boy in emergency housing in Rotorua has exposed a lack of support for some families in such accommodation. Tony Wall investigates.
Yong Liu’s eyes well up when he considers whether he could have done more to help one of his tenants, 5-year-old FerroJames Tiopira Sio.
‘‘Today [when I] think about the case I feel terrible I can’t do something,’’ says Liu, who goes by the name Leo.
Ferro-James was fatally beaten by his father, William James Sio, at the Rotorua property in February 2020 and died in Rotorua Hospital.
The 25-year-old has pleaded guilty to murder, ill-treatment of a child and neglect, and will be sentenced in July.
Since the murder the housing situation in Rotorua has only worsened, prompting the Government to announce last week that it would now directly contract motels in the tourist hub for emergency accommodation so it can more easily deliver wraparound support services.
Liu saw Ferro-James only a couple of times, but noticed he seemed very frightened of his father. ‘‘In fact, when my assistant gave a lolly to the young kid, William [took] it away.’’
As far as Liu is aware, Sio and Ferro-James– who lived at the Union St address for about a month with Sio’s partner, Leza Rawiri – did not have anyone checking on them from state agencies such as Oranga Tamariki and the Ministry of Social Development, which was paying the $1300 weekly rent.
‘‘I think it’s really bad,’’ says Liu, who moved to New Zealand from China 15 years ago.
‘‘The emergency housing policy is really f .... d.’’
Liu had only been providing accommodation at the property – two attached houses with 11 bedrooms between them – since September 2019, having purchased it for $650,000 through his company Rivers Property Management.
He says he didn’t know what to do about the frightened little boy at No 10.
‘‘It’s painful to recall it. I had no experience with this kind of thing at that time. If it were now, I would do everything I can to stop it from happening.’’
The property is on the edge of Rotorua’s CBD and is surrounded by flats, boarding houses and cheap motels. Neighbours say there would be parties, fighting and drug use.
‘‘I used to live in Manukau [south Auckland], which is considered a bad area but I had
no problems there,’’ one resident says. ‘‘This was an eye-opener.’’
Liu says only about four of the 11 rooms were filled at any given time, meaning a total weekly rental of about $5200.
His relationship with MSD was fraught. At first he was sent ‘‘very bad criminals’’ recently released from jail, he claims.
Police call logs show he called them dozens of times to the Union St property and to a hostel he owns around the corner.
Incidents included theft, trespass, wilful damage and disorder. Once, visitors stole Liu’s credit card from his car and went on a spending spree.
Then after the murder, Liu claims, he was painted as the bad guy by some in MSD who alleged he was profiting from the housing crisis by charging $1300 a week per room.
In fact, he claims, his rates were the cheapest in town – other motels and hostels were charging up to $1600 a room.
He was offering long-term tenancies at $350 a week if the tenant stayed at least six months, but claims Work and Income wasn’t interested, directing people to other lodges and motels.
Mike Bryant, MSD’s regional commissioner for Bay of Plenty, confirmed the ministry stopped paying emergency housing grants for people staying at Liu’s properties after Ferro-James’ death.
He says not everyone staying at Union St had been referred there by MSD. ‘‘Some clients express a preference on where they want to stay,’’ he says. ‘‘We did not at any stage have a contract with Mr Liu.’’
Bryant says the ministry no longer considered $1300 a week was ‘‘good value’’, there were other more suitable options available, and the ministry was stopping the use of private rentals for emergency housing.
Bryant confirmed Liu had offered to rent rooms for $350 a week long term, ‘‘but we did not want to enter this arrangement’’.
‘‘Mr Liu took his concerns to the Ombudsman – his complaint was not upheld.’’
The Union St property was in poor condition when Liu bought it, but he says he spent $15,000 on new appliances and furniture before renting it out.
When Sio arrived in January, 2020, he said he’d been living in Tauranga but had separated from Ferro-James’ mother, Liu says.
A relative of the murdered boy says Oranga Tamariki was involved with the family and custody was transferred from his biological mother to Sio.
‘‘She [the mother] was OK with [William Sio] taking him,’’ the relative says. ‘‘She thought he was going to take care of her boy . . . she wanted to co-parent with him.
‘‘But when he met this Leza, any hopes of co-parenting started slipping further away.’’
The relative is not aware of any further Oranga Tamariki involvement: ‘‘After that I’m pretty sure he was left to his own devices. And him moving around
a lot probably didn’t help any of those services to help him either.’’
Oranga Tamariki refused to answer a list of questions about the case while it is still before the courts.
Bryant, of MSD, also refused to discuss what supports, if any, were in place for the family, for ‘‘privacy reasons’’ and because a coroner would examine such matters.
Ferro-James’ mother declined to be interviewed but has been vocal on social media about getting justice for her boy.
In a post on Facebook shortly after Ferro-James died she addressed Sio and Rawiri, writing: ‘‘You were given one job and you failed at that job. The both of you deserve what is to come. I will never forgive you for this . . . thanks to both of you I no longer have a heart.’’
When he arrived at Union St, Sio chose a small room at the front of the house because it had bunks and a single bed, Liu says. There was only one other tenant – a single man in his 40s who’d been homeless for some time.
The relative says: ‘‘If you saw the room there would be no doubt in your mind, that house was in no way fit for that boy to be living in.’’
She says the room was ‘‘ridiculously small’’ – barely enough room for the beds – and evidence of synthetic drug use was found after Ferro-James died.
‘‘I think some of these Winz people should actually go and have a look at the money they’re giving out. I don’t think they’d be happy with paying $1300 for a room that’s no bigger than 3m by 2m – that’s a complete waste of money,’’ the relative says.
Life for Ferro-James at the address was miserable. The High Court at Rotorua heard that Sio and Rawiri made him sit or stand in the corner with his arms in the air and he was kept in the bedroom for long periods, the Rotorua Post reported.
He was repeatedly assaulted, punched, kicked and pinched in the weeks leading up to the fatal beating on February 8.
Rawiri has also pleaded guilty to charges of ill-treatment and neglect, and will be sentenced in June.
Kamaya Green, who lived in the adjoining flat with her two children at the same time Sio was there, says she did not even know a child was living there until she and her partner were woken at 1am one night by Sio and Rawiri arguing.
They went to investigate, and the couple roared off in their car, leaving the bedroom window open.
‘‘We peeked through the window and saw the boy asleep in bed.’’ They stayed with him until Sio returned about 15 minutes later, Rawiri still ‘‘nutting off’’ in the car.
Another time they tried to give the boy an iceblock, but Sio brushed them off.
‘‘They were odd, bad energy people, they hardly left their room. They were always arguing late at night – I thought they were crackheads or something,’’ Green says.
Another neighbour, Mark Rameka, told Stuff last year that he noticed a large bruise on Ferro-James’ head one day, but Green says she never saw or heard anything that would suggest the boy was being harmed.
She says she’s been accused of ‘‘turning a blind eye’’.
‘‘We feel like everyone looks at us and the landlord as accomplices. We blame ourselves sometimes, but we just couldn’t see the signs.’’
After Ferro-James died, MSD told all the tenants they would have to find somewhere else to live, but did not help find alternative accommodation, Green claims.
Liu allowed them to stay for a few weeks for free. ‘‘I have respect for Leo. He looked after us and fed us.
‘‘We loved it there because it was like our own house. I don’t see why they shut him down, it’s not his fault. That’s his business and they ruined it.’’
Green and her children are now living in a motel. ‘‘The kids can’t play outside any more.’’
After he was cut off by Work and Income, Liu sent letters of complaint to MPs and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, questioning why the Government would pay more to house emergency clients in motels when he was offering much cheaper long-term rentals in what he considered betterquality accommodation.
MSD executive Kate Satterthwaite wrote to him in May last year explaining that MSD had recently decided to cease using private rentals as emergency accommodation.
‘‘The continuing use for emergency housing of places that could be used as long-term rentals is, in some cases, incentivising property managers to withdraw stock from the rental market because of the higher returns for emergency housing, which in turn is contributing to increased need for emergency housing,’’ Satterthwaite wrote.
Liu sold the Union St property in October last year. According to property records it sold for $750,000 – $100,000 more than he paid for it.
He has to appear in court in July to answer charges of possession of an offensive weapon – a knife – and assault with intent to injure after an incident in Rotorua’s Fenton St last November.
He claims he was attacked by two former tenants who’d been subjecting him to ongoing harassment and racist abuse – he waved a knife to scare them off, he says, but denies stabbing anyone intentionally.
Liu says he only wanted to help homeless people to ‘‘pay back’’ New Zealand for everything it has given him.
But the experience has left him with a sour taste.
‘‘That house is really not suitable for the family. In the whole incident the child was the victim, William was also the victim, and there was a serious deficiency in the [MSD] system.’’