Former hotel accommodates 500 homeless a month

Friday, 1 November 2019

The former hotel Queen Elizabeth stayed in in Invercargill in 1954 is now providing accommodation for 500 homeless people a month.

Pressure on housing in Invercargill has been growing steadily for the past couple of years.

While the pressure on housing has been growing steadily for the past couple of years, shortages are now acute in the region.

Habitat for Humanity Invercargill's general manager, Paul Searancke, whose organisation manages The Grand Accommodation in the city, said: 'There's 500 a month who have nowhere else to sleep and that's just with us.'

'Our community as a whole, don't understand how difficult this situation is [for Southland].'

* Habitat for Humanity buys Kew Bowl site in Invercargill

* Southland offers endless opportunities

* Southland Housing Taskforce hopeful a solution can be found**

Beach Road Holiday Park owners Bevan and Art Shirley say they are getting three or four calls a day from people wanting permanent accommodation at the business near Invercargill.

Some people had given up hope of finding a home of their own and were sharing a house or flat with others. Overcrowding in homes would lead to family and health issues, Searancke added.

Beach Road Holiday Park owners Art and Bevan Shirley said they have no more room for permanent residents.

'When we bought this three and a half years ago, there were 31 permanents, now we've got 70.'

Vanessa Andrews and her family spent a month house hunting in Gore, while living in cramped conditions.

They receive three or four inquiries a day from people wanting permanent lodgings, with people often cold calling in seeking a permanent place.

A Gore woman and her four children, caught up in the housing crisis, are moving into a new home on Monday.

Vanessa Andrews said she and her children - Mikayla, 7, Kyrah-Rose, 10, Baden, 13, Savannah, 15 - were hugely relieved to secure a three-bedroom home this week.

Andrews said she and her children had been 'living a nightmare' being crammed into her father's three-bedroom house in Gore, with his boarder.

She and her children have been living there for a month following Vanessa's separation from her husband.

Vanessa Andrews and her children, Mikayla (front), Savannah (back), Kyrah-Rose and Bayden are hugely relieved to have found a house to rent this week.

The boarder is a nightshift worker and his bed is slept in at night by Baden. Kyrah-Rose, Mikayla and Andrews share a queen size bed, with Kyrah-Rose and Mikayla sleeping long ways and Andrews at the end of the bed trying to sleep sideways.

Savannah sleeps on a couch.

A family friend has had two of the children sleep at her home a few times recently to help them get good sleep.

Andrews was one of 30 applicants on the books of KPK Property Management, Gore, wanting a rental property.

KPK Property Management owner Kelly Knapp said the rental property shortage in Gore, Mataura, Edendale and Wyndham was extremely serious.

'As soon as an ad for one is posted, there's 10 to 20 inquiries within a day.'

Knapp knows of eight or nine people living in a house and others living with family or friends because there are no rentals available.

Habitat for Humanity Invercargill general manager Paul Searancke, Southland Housing Action Forum chairman Shaun Drylie and Labour List MP Liz Craig were in a group of 15 discussing Southland's housing shortage in Invercargill this week.

'A lot of people are going into emergency accommodation at motels, camping grounds and cabins,' Knapp said.

Bayleys real estate agent Bruce Young, of Gore, said the housing shortage was affecting all of Southland.

One of his open homes recently, for a $229,000 house, attracted 25 potential buyers.

'In the last six months there's been a lot of multiple offers on houses … up to 10 [on a house] wouldn't be uncommon.

'A lot of the time the offers are more than the asking price.'

Some of the reasons for the high demand were Kiwi Saver account holders buying their first home, low interest rates and property investors.

The Southland Housing Action Forum is trying to get a mix of more housing stock made available in the south.

It has met with Government officials and Southland community leaders to find solutions to the south's growing problem.

Under the Government's Public Housing Plan 2018-2022 it confirmed 40 houses were planned for Invercargill.

To date, three new houses were completed last year, and another three have consents and work on them is expected to start soon.

Kāinga Ora says it has land available for housing in Invercargill that is a mix of vacant land and land suitable for either redevelopment or infill housing.

There are 106 Southland applications on the waiting list for housing from the Ministry of Social Development and Kāinga Ora but Searancke said the number could involve several hundred people.

Southland statistics show the province needed 2800 houses to meet current demand.

Southland Housing Action Forum chairman Shaun Drylie said the housing shortage won't be solved by central government alone and private investors were essential.

This week Ministry of Housing and Urban Development officials held talks with property investors.

Drylie is keen for the housing discussion group to appoint a housing co-ordinator to liaise with local and central government, work with investors and keep building a database on housing matters.

In June, Habitat for Humanity Invercargill bought the old Kew bowl site, with plans to reduce Invercargill's housing shortage.

The intention is for it to be used as an affordable, mixed-use housing development to provide a range of housing from seniors to young families – to help combat widespread housing shortages in the city.

Searancke and other officials of Habitat for Humanity Invercargill are assessing the 234 submissions received for ideas on what type of housing should be built there.