The $180 million motel mile ‘disaster’
Taxpayers have spent $180 million on Hamilton’s emergency housing in the last two years alone, only to create what one of its would-be fixers describes as a “social and moral disaster”.
Welcome to Ulster St – the once proud motel strip turned emergency housing epicentre the coalition government is promising to end.
On a grey Thursday morning when the
Waikato Times visits, a man limps to the door of a motel to thump at it and swear at his girlfriend about an alleged affair.
Down the way, despite a cohort of politicians and their plans to move people out of their temporary digs, another man doesn’t want to leave the motel friends who help him navigate life, for a tax payer funded home elsewhere.
Associate Housing Minister and Hamilton West MP Tama Potaka has called Ulster St “a social and moral disaster”.
A raft of sweeping changes has been announced to raise the bar for getting an emergency motel room and shorten the stays of those in them.
The manager of the Ballinor Motor Inn, Resha Wilson, said she felt a lot of compassion and responsibility for those in emergency accommodation, but said she feared they won’t have the support they need if they are moved out.
The motel she manages has 16 rooms of varying sizes and is home to families, older people, those who have come out of hospital - and a couple of gang members.
Wilson lives on site having come through the emergency housing system herself, before landing her current role.
She said a lot of people have stayed at Ballinor for a long time and in fact one person has a Kainga Ora house available to them in Huntly, but doesn’t want to leave.
“It’s like a little community, the owner looks after all of us, it’s not just housing - he makes sure he looks after our health.”
She said people do want to move out of emergency housing but it can be hard and she’s worried there isn’t the support for them once they get a place of their own. “It’s been hard for a lot of people who have got their own homes, they still come back when they go through things and we support them.”
Wilson said they don’t have a police visit them very often.
“We haven't really had trouble and if we do, we work it out amongst ourselves.”
Yesterday, Ulster St, one of the main thoroughfares into the central city – had berms littered with empty shopping carts, broken kids’ bikes. Some of the issues that have created such controversy around motel use were also apparent. The argument with a girlfriend kicks off at 8.30am. The yelling continues as the man walks away, causing another hotel owner to call police.
A police car crawls down Ulster St, is waved down and pointed in the direction of the man’s residence. But otherwise, there are few people about. The Times returns later in the day after being told by staff and a few residents that most occupants won’t be out and about until after 10am.
According to two years of available data on Hamilton’s emergency special needs grants, from the two years to December 31, 2023, taxpayers have forked out $183,343,943.
The quarter ended December 31, 2022, saw the highest single total spend at $25.4million. In only one quarter did the spend dip below $20 million. But the data also reveals the number of children housed in emergency accommodation across Hamilton is dipping.
It’s 516 in the most recent figures, down from a peak of 756 in the March 2022 quarter.
The last quarter also saw the fewest grants issued at 3645, with the December 2022 quarter the high water mark at 5025. Hamilton mayor Paula Southgate told the
Waikato Times the emergency housing situation “has gone on far too long”.
“It is not the right place for families and young people to live long time. It was due to have been a short-term fix. As Mayor, I have called and will continue to call on central Government to work with Council and other key stakeholders, to find a solution to the long-term housing needs in Hamilton and stop using motels for emergency homes.”
Southgate also said she wanted to see a reduction in emergency housing in Hamilton, but declined to say directly whether she believed the measures announced would deliver that.
“As mayor, I want everyone in Hamilton to be well housed in warm, dry and safe homes, close to what they need. And to achieve this we need proper alternatives,” she said.
“We need affordable housing, whether it be Kainga Ora, affordable rentals or homes to buy. Council does not build these and so we need Government to support developers who can. “Kainga Ora has made significant progress in Hamilton to get those most at need out of emergency housing but we must do more. This recent announcement is another step towards that goal.”