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PM denies emergency housing botch-up

Author
Newstalk ZB Staff,
Publish Date
Mon, 27 Feb 2017, 8:40AM

PM denies emergency housing botch-up

Author
Newstalk ZB Staff,
Publish Date
Mon, 27 Feb 2017, 8:40AM

Prime Minister Bill English has denied the government has botched its emergency housing scheme after it emerged that nearly $8 million has been spent on urgent motel stays for families in need.

Last year, the government set aside $2 million to pay for motel stays, but nearly four times that was spent between October and December.

If current trends continue, about $30 million will be spent every year.

English told Mike Hosking this morning it's flushing out very complex cases, including people who have been black-listed from the private sector, or have been evicted from the state sector."

"They've often got a combination of criminal offending, drug offending, family violence [or] drug habits."

English admitted Te Puia Marae in Auckland seems to be better at making some progress with those families than government agencies.

However, Labour leader Andrew Little pointed out that the government has been in power for nine years, and ought to have sorted out the underlying problems.

"It was two or three years ago when [Housing Minister] Nick Smith stood up and gave a speech with a stack of papers saying that these were the regulations across New Zealand," he said.

"Well, they've had all that time to do something about it, and they've done nothing."

Little told Mike Hosking the government has seen the increase in accommodation grants going up over some time, we've known there's a homeless problem and house prices and rents have been going up.

"Their assessment of the size of the problem was way out of touch with even other less accurate indicators, but nevertheless indicators that said the size of the problem was very big."

 

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