Children living in emergency housing motels are set to be pushed up the priority list. 

From today the Ministry of Social Development will focus on families with dependent children who've been in emergency housing for longer than 12 weeks. 

They'll be moved to the top of the social housing waitlist. 

Housing Minister Chris Bishop told Mike Hosking that the situation the government has inherited is a mess. 

He says families weren't a priority and there was no structure from moving them from emergency to social housing. 

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