21 July 2018

Media: Rotorua Daily Post

Topic: Overnight drop-in centre

Inquiry

A reporter sought comment from Council following a Facebook post about the centre closing.

My questions are:

• They say that failing to keep people awake has resulted in warning of large fines. Is this true? If so what would the fine be for?
• It says they are continuing to work with council to resolve the issue. What is being done?

Response

Council continues to support the work of Visions of a Helping Hand, including the night time drop-in centre and efforts to establish a night shelter and Council did not require the centre to close.

Staff have continued to work with the operators of the drop-in centre, with the Ministry of Social Development, with iwi and other community groups, including local churches who have offered to assist. We have also continued to work with representatives of the owner of the buildings in which day and night time drop-in centres are being operated. We also continue to work towards longer term solutions to address homelessness in our community.

As agreed with them, we need to ensure any building being used as a shelter is safe for this purpose before it can operate as such. This is for the protection of the occupants, as well as the owners and operators. We consider this even more important given we are dealing with a particularly vulnerable group of people.

Yesterday we reminded the building owner's representative and Visions of a Helping Hand about the ongoing agreement around not operating the night time centre as overnight accommodation until a change of use could be consented. This followed concerns raised with us during the week and given our role in ensuring buildings meet legally required standards, we were obligated to reinforce that, including the consequences of operating a building illegally.

The Eruera St building cannot be used for accommodation until a change of use is consented and this requires both fire and structural issues to be addressed. The safety requirements for a building for use as accommodation are higher than those for use as an office, for which the Eruera Street building is currently consented.

We have been able to get MSD working directly with the homeless people who visit the day-time drop-in centre. The Ministry, as lead agency for emergency and social housing, has told us that it can provide options for people.

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Media: Rotorua Daily Post

Topic: Stolen rugby gear

Inquiry

A reporter sought comment from Council following a post on Facebook about rugby gear stolen from the Rotorua stadium.

Response

The thieves removed the gate to gain entry to the locked rear carpark at the stadium.

There are CCTV cameras there so we will be looking at footage from those.