Council pressure gets action on Rotorua emergency housing

A Rotorua city councilor says a fix for problems with the way the sulphur city’s motels have been used for emergency housing is a long time coming.

Government will now directly contract motels, group families with tamariki in particular motels separate from other groups, and provide social support services for those in emergency accommodation.

Merepeka Raukawa Tait says the council has been pushing for action since the motels were first pressed into service in last year’s Covid lockdown.

"Getting government agencies to work constructively together takes time and this is how long it has taken for council to raise its concerns, for action to be taken not only by the local office but certainly by ministers in Wellington too who somehow believe that thing will over time sort themselves out. It never does, and then you get crises as we have seen already with an assault in one of the motels," she says.

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