Williams Poto: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliams Poto: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 02 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2883. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]11.POTO WILLIAMS (Labour—Christchurch East)to the Minister for Social Housing: Why are Christchurch’s social housing organisations facing increased homelessness four years after the last major earthquake?Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Housing):In reality the number of people in insecure accommodation in Christchurch has actually fallen in the last 12 months but of course housing remains an issue. What we are finding still is that demand for rentals for rebuild workers and people seeking temporary accommodation while their homes were fixed had forced some of the most vulnerable down the accommodation list as in yesterday’s report in the paper. We certainly acknowledge that. That is why we have contracted two community organisations to provide short-term housing for those in need.Poto Williams: Is it acceptable to her as Minister that 4 years after the earthquakes social agencies say that young people are living in sheds families are living in cars and pregnant women are couch surfing because they have nowhere to go?Hon PAULA BENNETT: Reasons for homelessness are complex in many cases. They are not always just about the house itself but about other issues and homelessness has been an issue for decades quite frankly. What we have seen in the repair is that Housing New Zealand is three-quarters of the way done in its work and in fact is well ahead of track of where it had to be repairing 5000 earthquake-damaged properties. Three and a half thousand have been repaired so far. What we have also got is 159 new homes being built another 424. What we also see is that the number of builds and the number of houses now are above the number that it was prior to the earthquakes. So some of that complex work is being done with those who are homeless and we are very committed to it.Poto Williams: Why has she not provided more emergency housing in Canterbury given that the latest figures from the council show—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! Will the member please start the question again. I am having trouble hearing it.Poto Williams: Why has she not provided more emergency housing in Canterbury given that the latest figures from the council show that about 100 more people are on the social housing waiting list than last year and Christchurch’s newest short-term emergency housing for families is at 100 percent capacity after only 2 weeks?Hon PAULA BENNETT: The council has a role to do actually in preparing the homes that it has and that would obviously bring down the list that we have. But we are not ignoring it. We have more places for those who need short-term help and we have just recently made some announcements and seen people being housed who needed to be.Poto Williams: Will the Minister commit to increasing the level of emergency housing should her latest measures prove inadequate?Hon PAULA BENNETT: Certainly.Marama Fox: Can she explain what efforts the Government is taking to decrease unforeseen levels of homelessness in the regions?Hon PAULA BENNETT: We see that there are people throughout New Zealand who are actually struggling with some housing. What we have announced in the last round also was an increase in housing for young people in youth services. So what we are looking at is more supported teen flatting with that being a more regional localised solution where we can actually see particularly some of those young people who have come out of Child Youth and Family being in supported environments and we have committed more money to that.