7. Question No. 7—HousingCHRIS BISHOP (National) to the Acting Minister of HousingQuestion No. 7—Housing7. CHRIS BISHOP (National) to the Acting Minister of Housing: Does he stand by the Minister of Housing's statement from May last year that We have heard we've listened and we've acted to make sure that we are putting in a different system for Rotorua" and is he satisfied with emergency housing provision in Rotorua?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development and Employment) on behalf of the Acting Minister of Housing: In response to the first part: yes in the context in which it was made. In response to the second part: since 2013 Rotorua's population increased by around 9000 people and during this time only around 1500 new homes were consented. This shortfall in housing drove up rents and house prices and led to an increasing number of people living in emergency housing. That is why we formed the Rotorua Housing Taskforce a forum for central government to work with the Rotorua Lakes Council and Te Arawa iwi to provide better support and outcomes for people living in emergency housing motels and the community.The contracted motel model we introduced in Rotorua specifically for whānau with tamariki is working well and has seen positive outcomes. The support service providers have already helped over 200 whānau to move into longer-term accommodation. They have also supported many clients into employment. We have always said that motels are not a long-term solution; they are an immediate response to a crisis that is decades in the making which is why we continue to focus on building as many public homes as we can.Chris Bishop: When she says the system is "working well in Rotorua" why has the Government spent $6.4 million with the Visions of a Helping Hand Charitable Trust an organisation that reportedly removed a woman in labour from an emergency housing motel and has such a bad reputation one person interviewed on TVNZ Sunday programme said they would rather live in a bus with six people than one of their motels?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: It was really important that Government agencies didn't go in to Rotorua pretending that they had all the answers. The ask from Rotorua the council and Te Arawa was that we work together and that we utilise the support of local community providers. On behalf of the Acting Minister of Housing the allegations have certainly been looked into by the officials and the information that we have to date gives us the confidence to continue with the contracts.Chris Bishop: Will he commission an independent inquiry into the emergency housing provision by the Visions of a Helping Hand Charitable Trust in Rotorua; and if not why not?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: The allegations that were made in the Sunday interview that the member is referring to are allegations that needed to be taken up with the police. To date the police have provided no information or any instruction that there is cause for exiting the contracts and the provision of support that is in place for those people.Chris Bishop: When the Minister of Housing said "we are putting in a different system for Rotorua" does that different system mean mothers going into labour in cars and children living for month upon month in squalor and misery?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: I need to remind the member of where the emergency housing system came from. It came about from New Zealanders living in their cars and in doorways in 2016 under the previous Government. We have committed to building the houses that New Zealanders need. We recognise that in places like Rotorua there were less public houses available than what there had been when the previous Government had started. We are building those houses again. In the interim we need to provide a roof over the heads of people who are homeless so that is currently the emergency housing system that we have in place. A review is being undertaken and we look forward to any improvements that can be made.Chris Bishop: Why has the Government become a taxpayer-funded slumlord in Rotorua?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: I refute that. Again there is a level of hypocrisy in the question given that the decades of under-investment in housing have led to the emergency housing model that was introduced by the previous Government that we inherited. We will do everything that we can to work with iwi to work with councils to work with community providers to ensure that the options that are in place are appropriate but the main thing is building the houses that we need and we are currently doing that.Rawiri Waititi: Can the Acting Minister tell this House and the iwi of Te Arawa how from the first COVID lockdown in 2020 the 50 homeless people who were moved to emergency hotels in Rotorua have now grown to near on 1000 people living in emergency hotels in Rotorua in 2022?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: When COVID hit it was important that we ensured that people were in some type of accommodation. So there were a number of people with very complex challenges at that time that needed to be housed and the option in front of us right then was basically emergency housing provision of some sort. What I can say to the member is that what we have seen I think since March is a steady decline in the number of whānau who are in emergency housing. We have seen a large number of whānau moved out of emergency housing in Rotorua into more permanent more secure more stable housing and that is the trajectory that we intend to follow and what we are focused on.Rawiri Waititi: Can the Acting Minister tell us or confirm that they will use the 51 vacant Kāinga Ora homes in Rotorua for those living in emergency housing?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: I do not have information on any vacant public houses in Rotorua. If the member would like to put that in writing then we will happily receive that.Tāmati Coffey: Can the Minister confirm that in the Aotearoa New Zealand Homelessness Action Plan as done by this Government there is a specific part of that plan which is dedicated to reducing the reliance of emergency housing clients on motels?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: Absolutely. We are focused on decreasing the reliance on emergency housing in New Zealand. That comes down to building the houses that we need. There was an under-investment by the previous Government. We are well on our way to building the houses that we have committed to and that has to remain our focus as a Government.Chris Bishop: Can he confirm that since the publication of the much vaunted Homelessness Action Plan the Government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars housing thousands of New Zealand families in motels all around the country?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: If we hadn't inherited a deficit of houses by the previous Government then we wouldn't be in the position that we are now. We have a plan; that was something that the previous Government never had."