5 July 2019

Just following up on the wild weather yesterday and wondering what call outs the council received and where?

Did the weather mean trees etc needed to be cleared from roads yesterday and today?

I imagine the council will be busy with the aftermath of this - what will that look like?

The following information was provided:

Yes our contractors were kept busy yesterday with weather related issues. The work that took place yesterday and is underway today is available on our website here.

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Media: BOP Times (poss also for Rotorua Daily Post)
Topic: Homeless staying in motels

Comment sought from Mayor Chadwick as follows:

I have figures from MSD which shows a big jump in the number and amount that is being spent on putting homeless people/families into motels in Rotorua. They have spent $2.7m in the first three months of this year on emergency housing. Rents are also increasing with an agency saying its almost impossible to find affordable properties and there is a big waiting list for HNZ. I just had a couple of questions although I understand the council is not responsible for housing.

Are council doing any work in this space to help homeless families/ people and what is that?

Is it a concern there are so many people who do not have a place to call home in Rotorua and why?

From Mayor Steve Chadwick:

Working in partnership with others is the key to having a positive impact and Council has worked alongside others to facilitate and provide support to agencies and groups providing emergency and social housing locally.

Homelessness is complex and requires a multi-agency approach to deal with the multiple issues involved and there is a lot of good work being done by a lot of good people and by agencies which are experts in this field.

We are all greatly concerned about people unable to find homes and pressure on housing is being felt across the country.

In terms of long-term solutions, we support the Ministry for Social Development's Housing First initiative which aims to end homelessness and was launched recently in Rotorua. It took a while to get this in place and I look forward to seeing how this progresses.

It is also pleasing to see there is progress on building additional social housing in Rotorua and Council has been working with Housing NZ to help get this underway as quickly as possible.

We are aware of other housing developments being planned or processed so I hope we will soon see an uplift in building of new homes which will free up existing housing. There is a strong link between housing development and roading and we will continue working with NZTA on roading solutions that will help to enable development decisions.