Wellington's emergency housing grows by 300 per cent in a year, under strain from Covid-19 and escalating housing crisis

Monday, 1 March 2021

Michael Quan, who has multiple health issues, has been living in various motels for over a year. He is one of many people in the Wellington region living in emergency housing.

Emergency housing in the Wellington region has almost tripled over the last year, with the effects of Covid-19 and a shortage of affordable housing to blame for the “absolutely dire” crisis.

The Ministry of Social Development has confirmed that 622 households are currently living in emergency housing throughout the larger Wellington region, which includes Wellington City, Johnsonville, Lower Hutt, Naenae, Newtown, Porirua, Upper Hutt, and Wainuiomata.

This time last year 210 households in the region were living in emergency accommodation, almost three times fewer than the current amount.

An MSD spokesman said specific data relating to the Wellington City and CBD area was not available, nor was more recent nationwide data, with the latest figures for the December quarter released last week. The Wellington region had the highest growth for the quarter, an increase of close to 70 per cent when compared with the September quarter.

After a year in motels, Michael Quan has finally found a private rental to live in, but will only be left with $110 after paying rent.

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The Midway Pacifica Lodge was one of three Lower Hutt accommodation providers MSD stopped using after clients were found to be living in substandard conditions.

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Michael Quan had been living in motel-based emergency housing for over a year while waiting for a home on the social housing waiting list. He has health issues – including liver disease, type-1 diabetes and iron overload – and shouldn’t share accommodation with others according to his doctor and another health specialist.

“I’m quite sick,” Quan said. “I have a low immune system; it’s very weak. I could end up in hospital just like that.”

The cost of staying in emergency housing is covered by Special Needs Grants. A person or family should only stay in emergency housing for up to seven days – but a shortage of affordable housing means the duration of a stay was often much longer, sometimes years.

Quan spent six months at Midway Pacifica Lodge in Lower Hutt, until MSD stopped using the accommodation provider last year after reports of foul odours, moulded sheets and rotted food left behind by previous tenants. He moved to the Fernhill Motor Lodge in October, where he had been ever since.

Quan said that MSD had told him to leave Fernhill Motor Lodge by March 8, as he had been there “too long”. He had now signed the lease on a private rental, but would be left with $110 for food and utilities after paying rent. He had applied for more than 50 private rentals over the last year, many of them even more expensive.

“I’ll be sleeping on the floor,” Quan said.

Moving into a private rental meant taking himself off the social housing register, Quan said. He would have to start at the bottom of the list if he found himself in emergency housing again.

Regional Commissioner for Social Development Gagau Annandale-Stone said there was a significant increase in the need for emergency housing in Wellington.

“The shortage of affordable housing, along with the social and economic impacts of Covid-19, have contributed significantly to the increased demand. In Wellington, we have also seen particularly sharp increases in rent prices.”

Wellington City Missioner Murray Edridge agreed those impacts pushed people – particularly families – into “absolutely dire” situations.

“During lockdown, we saw people we've never seen before. People who had stable work, and therefore were getting by – or just getting by – either lost jobs, or lost hours.”

Edridge said emergency housing was one part of a complex issue, with many people struggling on the brink of homelessness. “There is a whole underbelly of homelessness that's not visible; people living in inadequate accommodation, people living in overcrowded facilities, people living in garages and sheds.”

Edridge believed, in some situations, emergency housing wasn’t the appropriate response.

“Emergency housing deals with the here and now, but does nothing to help people change their circumstances.

“You're not even maintaining the status quo. Because, as we've seen in the central city, it actually gets worse, because the circumstances are such that people's behaviour changes.”

Wellington City councillor Fleur FitzSimons, who holds the housing portfolio, said the city needed to do better for its residents. “It’s clear that there are a lot more residents living in emergency and transitional housing. These people deserve compassion and support to ensure they can live comfortably.”