By Giles Dexter of RNZ

The Government is celebrating the end of emergency housing motels in Rotorua - but Labour says it has just shifted the problem elsewhere.

Rotorua became the country’s epicentre for emergency housing.

At its peak, there were more than 240 households across 13 motels. Now there are zero families in motels.

Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka, who holds responsibility for the emergency housing portfolio, said Rotorua had become the “poster child” of a broken housing system, and its end reflected “deliberate, co-ordinated action”.

In 2023, National campaigned on ending emergency housing in Rotorua motels within two years.

“Rotorua whānau, businesses and mana whenua had been pleading for change for years. We listened and acted. We have restored safety, dignity and confidence to a city that was forced to absorb the consequences of a failed housing model,” Potaka said.

Referrals into emergency housing motels ended on June 15 with agencies working “intensively” to secure permanent placements.

The Ministry for Social Development and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development had worked with Visions of a Helping Hand, WERA Aotearoa Charitable Trust, Emerge Aotearoa, Ngāti Whakaue, Te Arawa, Restore Rotorua and the Rotorua Lakes Council to move every household into “stable, secure homes”.

The emergency housing motels to close (clockwise from top left), Alpin Motel, Pohutu Lodge and Geneva Motel. Photos / Kelly Makiha

Through partnership with Ngāti Whakaue, 240 affordable rental housing units were being built at Manawa Gardens.

The remaining motels were now preparing to return to commercial operations, Potaka said.

“Rotorua is finally back on the front foot, it is safer, stronger, and open for growth. Our government will keep backing Rotorua to reclaim its reputation, grow its tourism economy, strengthen its housing supply, and unlock new opportunities for the city,” Potaka said.

But Labour’s housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said the announcement was “tone deaf” and he did not know who Potaka was “trying to kid” by celebrating.

“No one is pretending that emergency housing was the solution to the housing crisis, but it’s a hell of a lot better than people sleeping on the streets.

“And all the minister is doing today is celebrating shifting people out of emergency housing to in front of families’ homes and businesses. That’s it, and it’s not much of a thing to celebrate.”

Labour's housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. Photo / Mark Mitchell

McAnulty said he had recently visited Rotorua and counted eight homeless people in one block of the town centre.

In January, Potaka announced the Government had met its target to reduce the overall number of households in emergency housing by 75% five years early.

The Ministry of Social Development had also tightened the gateway for those trying to access emergency housing.

McAnulty said the Government was focusing on people that had left emergency housing but did not want to talk about the people that could not get in.

“Emergency housing was only ever intended to temporarily house people while social houses were being built.

“But let’s look at what the Government are doing. Kāinga Ora are no longer expanding their numbers.

“The funding that’s gone to community housing providers is a fraction of what they were getting under the Labour Government, and people can’t get into emergency housing, and now they’ve closed them all together,” he said.

“It’s no surprise that homelessness is now what frontline providers are saying the worst in living memory.”

-RNZ