A Rotorua bar owner says emergency housing in the area is slowing killing Rotorua.

Official documents show ministers were warned a year ago that having emergency housing in Rotorua risks public safety.

Emergency and transitional housing now costs one million dollars every day.

The owner of Rotorua's Hennessey's Irish Bar, Reg Hennessey, told Heather du Plessis-Allan that he believes that about 45 motels are full of "homeless people or rough sleepers or people with problems". 

He says they started to see problems on the streets and in the CBD before this started. 

"We clearly understand as businesses that these people have got to have somewhere to stay and sleep.

"That's not the issue. The issue is motels in the middle of a tourist town of Rotorua's size is obviously not the right place."

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