'Rat hole' motel investigation sparks emergency housing shakeup
Wednesday, 20 February 2019
Motels used for emergency housing are likely to be subject to new standards, as the Government admits leaving quality control to local councils and moteliers isn't working.
Unlike transitional and public housing, motels used to house vulnerable Ministry of Social Development (MSD) clients are not regulated or inspected, despite significant taxpayer investment.
It comes after a Stuff investigation produced evidence of poor standards at the Auckland Astro Motel, the emergency housing provider which received the most amount of funding between October 2016 and June 2018.
The investigation also found the Astro, dubbed a 'rat hole' by one guest, was never signed off as compliant with the building code by Auckland Council.
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In response to an oral question from Greens co-leader Marama Davidson on Wednesday, Minister for Housing and Urban Development Phil Twyford admitted the current system was failing on several levels.
'There are no standards currently tied to emergency housing Special Needs Grants (SNG) … the motel quality is, therefore, regulated only by the local council. I do not consider this to be acceptable.
'Officials are going to advise me on how we can make sure motels receiving Government money through emergency housing Special Needs Grants meet appropriate standards,' Twyford said.
The Government was now committed to 'phasing out the last Government's reliance' on motels.
'It's unacceptable that the SNGs for motels were established without accountability for the standards. That will change,' Twyford said.
On Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke of her 'aversion' to using motels, however the alternative - allowing people to sleep in cars - was not attractive.
'We inherited a real lack of transitional and emergency housing places. Now, since we've been in Government, we have extended and increased the number of public housing places by 1900, but that has still not kept up with demand.
'We are still, unfortunately, in a position of using motels. I do not want to be in that position and I'm putting as much pressure on as I can on extracting ourselves from that situation,' Ardern said.
She expected officials to 'look into' the conditions at the Astro, 'particularly given the amount of taxpayer money' that was being spent on it.
From October 2016 to June 2018, this stop-gap measure - intended for stays of up to seven days - came with a $61.7 million taxpayer price tag.
The vast majority of the 60,238 grants made over that period were paid directly to the accommodation provider on a non-recoverable basis, meaning most grant recipients don't need to pay them back.
In the final three months of last year, 15,676 emergency housing grants for motels were handed out - up 14,000 on the previous quarter.
This money serviced just under 2700 individual clients, with many requiring repeat assistance under the grant system - up from 2585 in July to September 2018.
This surging demand came despite the Government making the largest increase in public housing numbers in a decade, building 1658 new places.
This week, it was revealed more than 10,000 people were on the waitlist for a state-owned home, with about three-quarters of them categorised as 'Priority A' - deemed as having the most acute need.
Almost half were in Auckland, with most - nationally - having to wait an average of 157 days for a property to become available.
Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) deputy chief executive Scott Gallacher acknowledged in January that more public housing was needed, and 'we're doing everything we can to urgently increase supply'.
'Public housing is at an all-time shortage across the country, so we often need to fall back on transitional housing,' MSD deputy chief executive Viv Rickard explained.
Transitional housing was MSD's first preference for those needing emergency housing, seen as a 'stepping stone to long-term, sustainable housing'.
Unlike motel and hostel emergency housing providers, transitional housing providers were put through a rigorous accreditation process administered by MSD.
Before any transitional housing provider was contracted, HUD would review the accommodation to ensure it was of an 'appropriate standard, and to ensure the appropriate consents are in place', Rickard said.
Transitional housing accommodation, used for an average of 12 weeks, can range from purpose-built developments to converted commercial accommodation through to properties sourced from the private rental market.
But once public housing and transitional housing options were exhausted, the Government offers Emergency Housing SNGs to cover motel or hostel accommodation.
While it was only intended as a short-term measure, Rickard conceded this was not the optimum situation, echoing the Prime Minister's viewpoint.
'We fully accept that for people with nowhere to live, a motel is not ideal. It's certainly not the long-term solution we want for people we're trying to help.
'If it's a toss-up, though, between sleeping in a car, garage, tent, or an overcrowded situation and a motel, we consider a motel preferable,' Rickard said.
The situation uncovered by Stuff at the Auckland Astro Motel in Ōtāhuhu showed motels could offer an unsatisfactory level of service under the current system.
The motel - which is also open to the general public - was criticised by dozens of guests for being 'filthy' and a 'ghetto', with some reporting stained sheets, an omnipresent stench and flies.
One MSD client described opening the fridge for the first time to find cockroaches and maggots inside of it - a property the Government was paying $1500 a week to house himself, his partner and his one-year-old daughter.
Another talked about a hole in the wardrobe that sat broken for weeks, sheets that weren't changed for three weeks and an uncovered shower that when he used the toilet, the smell of human waste would seep up through it.
MSD admitted it received 'several complaints' about the Astro last year, including issues with the linen, but believed they had been addressed and resolved.
The motel did not comply with the building code - detail MSD was not aware of until it was raised by Stuff - and the property, like other emergency housing motels, was not being regularly inspected.
Up until Wednesday, officials have stuck rigidly to the line that building compliance issues were a matter for Auckland Council.
After a spokeswoman said the Minister would not comment until after an MSD briefing, Stuff approached Carmel Sepuloni directly on Tuesday.
After announcing she had ordered a ''stocktake' of emergency accommodation, Sepuloni pointed out that the Astro was 'not contracted' to MSD for this work.
'Some clients choose to go there and the subsidy is given for their accommodation.
'A slight difference, but we still want to make sure that any accommodation that our clients are going in to is fit-for-purpose, so some work is going to go on in regards to that,' Sepuloni said.
This was backed up on Wednesday by Rickard.
'Some of the emergency accommodation our clients use is government-contracted and some is not. Astro is not a contracted provider of emergency motel accommodation.
'Most motels provide accommodation to an adequate standard. We would hope for our clients to receive the same level of service as other motel guests.
'Together, with other agencies, we're urgently looking into the use of motels to understand the level of service being provided and any compliance issues,' Rickard said.
At the moment, MSD was in contact with motel-using clients once a week, however Rickard said the agency intended to 'bring more rigour to those talks to ensure we're aware of any issues clients are experiencing, including the standard of accommodation'.
'The contacting of motels, first started by the previous National Government, has enabled moteliers to profit off a lack of state housing,' Auckland Action Against Poverty coordinator Ricardo Menendez March says.