July 26, 2021
Motel buy gives Kainga Ora better choices
The Associate Housing Minister for Homelessness is defending Kainga Ora's purchase of a Rotorua motel as emergency housing.
Rotorua Lakes district councillor and Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency chair Merepeka Raukawa Tait says the main street is the wrong place for such a facility.
But Marama Davidson says the new approach increases the agency's ability to offer people in unstable housing some dignity and security.
"That's one of the principles behind trying to take up motels from a government provision rather than a commercial property provision which was not providing safe spaces and also so we can have an overview and place people appropriately, whether that's whānau with children all in one place and that's been the priority," she says.
Marama Davidson says Kainga Ora and other agencies are also looking at long terms solutions for Rotorua's housing woes.
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