1. Question No. 1—HousingANGIE WARREN-CLARK (Labour) to the Minister of HousingORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSQuestion No. 1—Housing1. ANGIE WARREN-CLARK (Labour) to the Minister of Housing: How is the Government supporting people whose homes have been damaged or destroyed by recent severe weather in New Zealand? Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Housing): The recent severe weather has caused significant damage to homes across the North Island displacing thousands of people. To date there have been over 9000 rapid building assessments and reassessments completed in the impacted regions in the North Island. In Auckland there have been 664 red placards and 2292 yellow placards issued. Across the regions impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle including Tai Rāwhiti Hastings Northland Waikato Central Hawke's Bay and Wairoa 183 homes have red placards and a further 1332 homes have yellow placards. While initial assessments are still to be completed in isolated areas over 90 percent of rapid building assessments are completed and Government will continue working closely with councils to complete the assessments. Angie Warren-Clark: Who are responsible for conducting the rapid building assessments?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Rapid building assessors are trained volunteers who are registered with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment to be deployed where required to assess whether affected buildings in the area can be safely used. Assessors are either qualified with engineering or building science degrees or they have building consent officer experience with appropriate qualifications from endorsed programmes. While some territorial authorities have been able to coordinate a sufficient pool of local rapid building assessors to undertake the assessments the Government is coordinating building management support for territorial authorities who need further resources to conduct these assessments. To date approximately 14 rapid building assessors have been deployed from around New Zealand and they have been deployed to Kaipara Waikato Hastings Tai Rāwhiti Wairoa and Tīnui. Angie Warren-Clark: What support has the Government provided to those people who have been displaced by the recent severe weather? Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: The Government's temporary accommodation service has provided support to displaced people across Northland Auckland Tai Rāwhiti Bay of Plenty Waikato Hawke's Bay and Tararua District: 1600 households have registered for Temporary Accommodation Service (TAS) support so far and we're expecting that to increase to over 3500 households across those regions. The current priority for TAS is to ensure there is an adequate supply of short-term accommodation to meet immediate housing need as part of the disaster response which includes commercial accommodation like motels hotels and motorhomes. Angie Warren-Clark: How will the Government support households who will be displaced for longer periods of time? Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Given the severity of the weather events many households will be displaced for longer periods of time while their damaged or destroyed homes are repaired or rebuilt. We're already investigating longer-term accommodation options to accommodate those displaced by the events such as Portacabins renting or buying new homes and supporting iwi-led temporary housing initiatives. We have experience delivering these types of accommodation solutions including the temporary village in Westport following the flooding events in 2021. When no longer needed for TAS purposes houses cabins and infrastructure from TAS villages have either been sold at residual values to social housing providers or first-home buyers or ownership has been transferred to local councils for the benefit of the local community.