20 July 2018

Media: Rotorua Daily Post

Topic: Housing First

Inquiry

To Ministry of Social Development From Rotorua Daily Post:

A reporter sought information about Housing First which is coming to Rotorua and which was mentioned in our release on homelessness.

Response

MSD provided the following information:

The Ministry of Social Development, Rotorua providers, iwi, agencies and the Rotorua Lakes Council are actively working to set up the Housing First programme as soon as possible in Rotorua.

Housing First is for people who have been homeless a long time and face multiple and complex issues. It provides both permanent housing and on-going support for as long as needed to help people keep their homes and get their lives on track.

Housing First is a model that has inspired policies and practices across North America, the UK and Europe for housing people who are homeless and have complex mental health and addiction problems. It is based on extensive international evidence that shows the programme offers effective long term housing solutions for people who are hard to house.

In May, the Government announced that Rotorua was one of four regions to gain a share of a $42.9 million investment that will fund 550 new places in the Housing First programme.

Right now MSD and Rotorua providers are working on a proposal to deliver the service in Rotorua and this will determine the need and number of Housing First places in Rotorua.

In the meantime, MSD is doing whatever it can to house people this winter. The message for people in urgent need of housing is to contact MSD on 0800 559 009 or visit Work and Income.

This week Ministry of Social Development staff in Rotorua started a daily outreach service to work directly with homeless people to offer immediate housing support. We understand that some people are not always able to come in and seek support. We are visiting Rotorua's day-time drop-in centre for homeless people to make sure people know about the housing support they can access at any time through MSD.

Transitional housing, public housing or private rentals are MSD's first options to house people, but if these are not available there are other options such as Emergency Housing Special Needs Grants to pay for short-term accommodation. In the March quarter, MSD supported 40 Rotorua households with Emergency Housing Special Needs Grants, and while the latest figures are not yet finalised, we know we have helped a lot more people with these grants during April, May and June.

Editors Notes:

-A factsheet on the Housing First programme

-Transitional housing: For people in urgent need of housing, transitional housing offers a warm, safe place to stay for up to 12 weeks or more, along with support services and help to secure a longer-term home. In Rotorua, MSD has increased transitional housing places to a current total of 64.

-Rotorua also has 630 public housing tenancies.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Media: Rotorua Daily Post

Topic: Rates increases

Inquiry

There have been a few Facebook comments, letters to the editor, emails and such floating around on the topic of rates increases. Most of the conversation has been around people who saw the average rates increase would be 5.7 per cent, and have then been sprung with up to 13 per cent increases.

I thought maybe the council would like to provide some comment around why some people have had such large increases. One letter writer in particular was saying her rates are higher than the average in Auckland, where properties are worth two/three times as much.

So could you please provide a bit of comment around this issue, addressing the following questions:

• Why are many residents reporting rates increases double the average?
• What is the smallest residential increase and largest residential increase (as a percentage)
• What is the smallest business increase and largest business increase?
• Many people wonder why the rates in Rotorua are higher than counterparts in Auckland, Tauranga etc, is there an explanation for that?

Response

Information provided:

• The council was conscious of affordability and tried to spread the rates increase as evenly as possible.
• However it is difficult to compare rates in Rotorua with those in other cities.
• You have to compare like with like, medians with medians. A million dollar home in Auckland is mid-value there, whereas a million dollar home in Rotorua is high range.
• If you make a comparison that way, Rotorua is middle of the pack in terms of its rates increase.
• There are also differences in how councils charge for services - rates don't necessarily include all the same service charges. For example, some do not include water supply charges in their rates, charging separately for those.
• Revaluations coming into effect in Rotorua this year also affected rates with huge but varied increases across the district. Properties which had a significant increase in capital value, as some in Rotorua had, would generally face a bigger rates increase that one with a lesser increase in value.
• There is an average rates increase but many properties will be on either side of that - increases vary between and within categories due to the property revaluations. The majority of increases fall close to the average but there are always outliers and some properties will have a decrease in rates.