Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says the coalition Government has reached its target to reduce the number of families in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years ahead of schedule.
“Large-scale use of emergency housing was one of the biggest public policy failures in the history of Aotearoa New Zealand,” he says.
“Under the previous Government, many thousands of New Zealanders were dumped in motel accommodation for months or even years, particularly in places like Hamilton.
“We campaigned on ending this disaster. When we came into office, we set a clear target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent by 2030.
“Today we are proud to announce this target has been achieved already, five years early.”
Potaka says the Government has achieved its target early by implementing its ‘priority one’ policy, which bumps families with children to the top of the social housing waiting list once they’ve been in emergency housing for 12 weeks or more.
It also had a steady supply of social housing become available, with the addition of 2650 Kāinga Ora homes to be delivered over the next couple of years, and a combined effort across agencies to work with people in emergency housing to get them into stable housing including private rental homes.
“While the previous Government only knew where about 50 per cent of those leaving emergency housing were going, our Government has done the work to significantly improve on this,” Potaka says.
“As a result, we know that about 80 per cent of those leaving emergency housing have moved to social, transitional, or private housing with some kind of government support such as the accommodation supplement.
“Emergency housing will always be available as a last resort for those who need it, and it’s important we continue monitoring the availability and use of emergency housing to ensure we stay on target.”
