Government forking out millions for emergency housing in Lower Hutt

Sunday, 1 September 2019

The Ministry of Social Development has spent $1.8 million on emergency housing in Lower Hutt in three months.

Emergency housing grants in Lower Hutt are at a record level, topping $1.8 million in the quarter to June.

That's up from $520,000 for the same period in 2018 and the highest in the Wellington region.

As well as 986 people receiving emergency housing, there are 404 on the waiting list and a further 166 wanting a transfer in Lower Hutt.

Large tracts of land in Epuni are vacant at the same time the Government is paying millions of dollars in emergency accommodation in Lower Hutt.

In recent weeks, two new social agencies have established themselves in Lower Hutt to help deal with homelessness.

* Apartments for Petone library

The need for emergency accommodation has kept Lower Hutt hotels fully occupied.

* New homes for vacant Naenae land

* Boost for Hutt's social housing stock

* Labour leader promises 400 new homes**

The City Mission opened a hostel in Britannia House for homeless men and the Reverend Martin Robinson opened a drop-in centre in Naenae.

Robinson, who in 2017 led demonstrations over the lack of social housing, said the problem was acute.

As well as the homeless, there were large numbers of people living in garages, cars and in overcrowded houses in Naenae.

Labour List MP Ginny Andersen agreed with Robinson that the problem had reached crisis level.

Housing New Zealand demolished properties in 2015 in Epuni saying they were earthquake prone.

Over the last decade, supply had not matched demand and she received lots of desperate requests for help from constituents struggling to find a home.

She blamed the previous Government for demolishing social housing in Naenae and Epuni, and not replacing it.

Over the last few weeks Hutt South National MP Chris Bishop has been posting regularly on the housing crisis.

'Social housing is a disaster zone in the Hutt', is his blunt summary.

He regularly heard from people blaming the current situation on National.

'To some extent, this is fair. From 2008-17 National did lots of good things for New Zealand and for Lower Hutt; but one area we could have done better is housing. In particular, building on the empty sections on Epuni/Naenae should have happened faster.'

BIshop said the roots of the problem went back to 2000 and reflected the lack of commitment from successive governments and councils to making more land available.

Social housing under construction in Naenae.

'For a generation, we have decided as a society not to free up land for housing. We have not built out, and we have not built up. We now need to do both.'

He wanted a more co-ordinated approach across the region to identify where housing should be built.

The Hutt City Council's manager of city and community development, Matt Reid, agreed there was no easy solution.

'Meaningful change' would only be achieved when the Government, HNZ, iwi and the council worked together, he said.

For too long Governments had focused on the cost of building new houses, rather than improving social outcomes to end homelessness and poverty.

An aerial view of Housing New Zealand properties under construction in Naenae.

Researcher Charles Waldergrave, of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group, said problems in Lower Hutt reflected what was happening in the rest of the country.

Since the 1980s, governments had moved out of schemes to help people into their first home. That had resulted in a significant drop in home ownership at the same time older New Zealanders had invested in houses as a retirement scheme. That had forced rents up to a point where a lot of people had found themselves homeless.

He would like to see the Government invest in home ownership schemes and said only a combined approach by central and local government would fix the problem.

In June 2015 the average house price in Lower Hutt was $377,000, it is now $596,000 – a rise of $220,000 in four years

Du Pont Motel manager Sagar Bhavasar said Du Pont and two other associated motels charged the Ministry of Social Development $199 a night for emergency accommodation. One motel was permanently occupied by referrals from MSD.

'Some of them stay for a long time, six or seven weeks.'

Andersen said housing was a complex problem and there was no quick solution.

The median price for a house in Lower Hutt is just under $600,000.

'Banning foreign buyers has helped to take some of the heat out of the housing market. But increasing the supply of housing will make the biggest difference.'

Housing New Zealand is building 153 homes in Epuni and there are more than 30 under construction in Naenae.

Emergency Accommodation

For the quarter to the end of June, MSD paid out:

* Lower Hutt $1.823 million

* Wellington $832,139

* Upper Hutt $139,072

* Porirua $206,626

* Masterton $75,937

* Kāpiti $233,283