April 11, 2023
Housing hui unpicks complex issues
Once of the organisers of the national Māori housing conference says the Health Ministry is dodging responsibility for its role in fuelling the housing crisis.
Haehaetu Barret says because this year’s conference was held in Rotorua, they were able to show delegates many positive initiatives, including iwi-driven housing projects and trade training.
They were also able to take them to the motels along Fenton St to see how the government has used the city as a dumping ground for the homeless, rather than taking real steps to deal with the complex causes of why whānau end up homeless.
“When we went into the Four Canoes and saw the complexities that were in the Four Canoes motel on Fenton St, that was a health responsibility. Housing was secondary. Whānau there should have been in the mental health services. Mental health services had discharged them back to a motel without any appropriate support,” Ms Barrett says.
She says government is creating ridiculous hurdles in the way of groups attempting to become community housing providers.