The quarter billion dollar bill
‘One of the biggest public policy failures in New Zealand history’
It’s been dubbed “one of the biggest public policy failures in New Zealand history” - and it’s cost more than a quarter-of-a-billion dollars in less than five years for Hamilton alone.
That’s according to an Official Information Act request filed by the Waikato Times with the Ministry of Social Development.
According to the MSD, from 2020 to February 29 this year, the total cost for emergency housing special needs grants in Hamilton stood at $291,069,489.72.
Associate Housing Minister and Hamilton West MP Tama Potaka said the last Government saw “thousands of children consigned to grow up in motels” and said it spent around $340m a year on emergency housing.
“Waikato is no exception, and Hamilton has one of the highest rates of emergency housing use in the country,” he said.
“That said, over the 12-months to February 2024, there’s been a 33% reduction in demand for emergency housing in the Waikato with the number of households supported dropping from 792 (February 23) to 531 (February 24).
“Importantly, most of this reduction has come among families with children, who have been supported into more appropriate and permanent housing.”
The Waikato Times also asked how many children lived in emergency accommodation during that period - but the MSD was unable to answer as “details of children attached to each emergency housing special needs grant are not recorded”.
However, MSD was able to reveal that 34,221 grants were issued to households with children.
Potaka declined to comment on whether MSD should collect specific data on the number of children in emergency housing, but did say the introduction of a priority one category “means that families with dependent children who have been in emergency housing for more than 12 weeks will go to the top of the waitlist for a social house”.
He said the coalition Government planned to increase the supply of local social housing, but wanted to ensure they were “prioritised for those most in need”.
According to Kāinga Ora Waikato regional director Mark Rawson, in 2023 they delivered 391 new homes in Hamilton City, through either redeveloping existing homes, or partnering with developers to acquire completed homes.
“We are on track to deliver another 520 new homes across Hamilton in 2024,” he said. “To date this year, we have delivered 88 homes in the city.
“The remainder will be delivered over the balance of the year, with another 180 homes set to be delivered by July 2025.” e also said they would work closely with MSD to tenant the properties “as quickly as possible”.
“We know the positive difference having a stable home can make to people’s lives,” he said. The MSD data revealed that last year was the high water mark for grants $93m in total over that calendar year, followed by 2022 with a $90m spend.
For the whole of 2020 the total spend was just $36.6m, and for 2024 to February 29 the spend stands at $12m.
In total 67,197 grants were issued over the almost five-year timespan, with 2022 seeing the highest demand at 18,957.
Households with children peaked in 2022 at 9279, slightly lower than the second highest level the year earlier at 9081.
This year so far, to February 29, saw 1068 households with children in emergency accommodation.