10. State and Social Housing—Availability and Emergency HousingPHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū) to the Minister for Social HousingState and Social Housing—Availability and Emergency Housing10. PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū) to the Minister for Social Housing: How many of the 1000 new social housing places she says are in the pipeline will be delivered by the end of the year if any? [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Is the Minister going to answer? [Interruption] Order!Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Housing): Sorry Mr Speaker. But I have got good news for the House. Might I let the member know that we have—[Interruption] no here we go; this is good news. We have new houses literally coming on every single week: more than 14 through Housing New Zealand. Actually I want to—right now the Waimahia development which your leader actually went and visited is being done by social community housing providers. It is a combination of affordable and social houses. There are houses coming on board literally every week. It is a fantastic development and there is more of that coming our way—from us. You can also see some of those others that are coming through from the Social Housing Unit fund. Of those extra 1000 that we announced just last week which we changed they will be coming on board. There are new houses coming on board every week every month and even over the next few years.Phil Twyford: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Would it help if I repeated the question? She clearly did not address the question.Mr SPEAKER: I certainly will give an additional supplementary question. The member can use it in whichever way he wants. The question has not—[Interruption] Order! The question has not been answered.Phil Twyford: What responsibility does she take for the fact that it now takes an average of 217 days to house families who have been living in cars up from 108 in December last year?Hon PAULA BENNETT: We were actually housing around 140 a week; we are now on average housing 158 people a week. As I say we have got new houses. To be very clear and as we have stated to the member—both in writing and orally as well—those people may have gone on saying that they are living in a car; they are certainly not in a car for those 7 months. They can now access of course that Special Needs Grant where they can get emergency housing immediately if they need it. But we are housing more people each week than we were even just 6 months ago. We have also got new houses coming on board all the time.Phil Twyford: Why is she trying to claim that people in cars and tents are being helped in the interim when her own answer to the written question providing the data shows that this is not the case stating It is based on the last reported accommodation of the main applicant prior to being housed." which means they were still in a car or a tent at the time?Hon PAULA BENNETT: As I have quite clearly said there is now the Special Needs Grant available from 1 July so people can get access if they have to into motels and the Ministry of Social Development picks up that bill—effectively the taxpayer does. We have got literally hundreds who have taken that up and are doing it. We are also housing more people every single week and I simply dispute the way that the member is choosing to read that.Phil Twyford: How can the stock of social housing be so tight that a person who is living in a tent or a car is categorised as priority B on the waiting list and not priority A?Hon PAULA BENNETT: On the whole I would expect them to be at least a priority A and a high one at that.Phil Twyford: How does she expect just 300 new emergency housing places to make a difference to the housing crisis when there are over 4000 people in New Zealand living without shelter?Hon PAULA BENNETT: I have good news for the member: the member will see announcements in the next few days of where we are now—at over 3000 that have been contracted for the year. We have also got a whole work programme that is going on around the new places that we are bringing on around emergency housing. As I said in the House last week for example Housing New Zealand has just signed a contract for a motel that we are taking over to turn into emergency and transitional housing. We are also working with community group houses—some of those around the country—that might have been set for sale. So that has doubled now—more than doubled. So I am just trying to update the member if he wants to listen. [Interruption] If he wants to listen—more than doubled since then. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! The answer is complete. [Interruption] Order! [Interruption] No. Order! I want both sides to settle down."