Coronavirus: Government spending $1400 per week each to house, support homeless

Wednesday, 13 May 2020

Motel accommodation is the silver lining of the coronavirus lockdown for homeless people around the country. (Video first published May 1, 2020)

The government is spending $1400 a week each on some formerly homeless people to help them through and beyond the coronavirus pandemic.

The figure covers accommodation and support services per motel place for those housed as part of the Covid-19 response, Housing Minister Megan Woods said.

Of 1600 places secured, 1200 are funded until April 2021.

A remaining 400 people are expected to return to their homes, places where it may have been hard to achieve social distancing.

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Nelson's Balmoral Motel is among those providing accommodation to the homeless through the Housing First initiative. Video first published in July 2020.

In an interview with Stuff, Woods said the success in housing homeless people during the lockdown was due to the launch of the Homelessness Action Plan in February.

But an anti-poverty campaigner said the efforts do not go far enough and is calling for expanded public housing programs and action to acquire empty dwellings.

Across the country, authorities scrambled to find lockdown accommodation for rough sleepers, people who relied on night shelters and others in tenuous housing.

Some homeless Kiwis in Auckland swapped the streets for a serviced apartment, and a manager told Stuff in April they had caused no issues at all.

In February, the Government announced 1000 new transitional houses would be made available to deal with the country's homeless crisis, part of the $300 million homelessness action plan.

Woods said funding the 1200 units for another year gave time to bring on the additional planned supply of transitional housing.

Auckland Action Against Poverty co-ordinator and Green Party Maungakiekie candidate Ricardo Menéndez said without more public housing, transitional homes were just an expensive band-aid.

“This isn't a long term solution, this is breathing space while we get our more permanent transitional housing places built,'' Woods said.

“In the long term, my aspiration for any New Zealander isn't that they live in a motel unit.''

Also set aside for the coming year was $31 million for wrap-around support to help people “sustain their accommodation,'' Woods said.

“That approach … gave some of the accommodation providers confidence to take on what are some of our most vulnerable but most challenging of people.''

The support offered could include re-training, she said.

Woods credited the Homelessness Action Plan already underway for the fact more than 1000 people were able to be quickly housed for lockdown.

“If we had been starting from a standing start, I don't think it would have gone as well.''

The $1400 per week cost included accommodation as well as support services but does not include benefits.

A job-seeker support benefit for a single person 25 years or older is $250.74 per week.

Auckland Action Against Poverty co-ordinator and Green Party Maungakiekie candidate Ricardo Menéndez said the efforts did not go far enough.

“While I commend the swift reaction by local and central government to ensure people aren't sleeping on the streets, the truth is the government has the resources and the policy levers to permanently house these people.

“My concern is that we're still accepting that homelessness can only be managed and not genuinely ended.”

The Government should seize the opportunity of the Covid-19 aftermath to permanently end homelessness, he said.

As the country enters level two, Menéndez said the Government should expand public housing programs and take measures to discourage landowners holding 'ghost homes'.

Empty dwellings number nearly 40,000 in Auckland, according to the 2018 Census.

The measures could include a tax on ghost homes identified via water and electricity meter readings, as well as buying the dwellings then converting them to permanent public housing, he said.

“Because ultimately, if the Government is genuinely committed to ending homelessness, as opposed to managing it, we do need to see that burgeoning housing waiting list addressed.”

The lack of security for people in transitional houses, including reduced rights compared to other renters, was also a concern, he said.

“I wouldn't call transitional houses homes, they're sort of band aid solutions, that unless we have a permanent and ambitious public housing program are just going to be really expensive band-aid approaches to the housing crisis.''