Fox Marama: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFox Marama: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 09 June 2016. Volume:714;Page:11856. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]4.MARAMA FOX (Co-Leader—Māori Party) to the Minister for Social Housing: What assistance if any will be provided to marae like Te Puea who in an expression of manaakitanga are supporting homeless whānau?Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Housing): I am advised that Ministry of Social Development staff have been made available and have regularly been at Te Puea to make sure the people there are having their housing needs assessed and are getting access to support wherever they might be entitled to it. Equally after representations from the member herself earlier in the week I have asked officials to look in to see whether there is other assistance that we could give to the actual marae and not just to individuals.Marama Fox: Does she agree that relying on the goodwill of marae to support homeless whānau is not a viable long-term solution; if so what does she intend to do about it?Hon PAULA BENNETT: I certainly do and I do not think that anyone considers the current situation as ideal. That is why we have got a number of new builds that are under way—more than 500—under community housing providers. We have got about 589 that are contracted or are under contracts with Housing New Zealand. Equally we have put $41 million extra into emergency housing of which we have opened up the request for proposal for those who are already in contracts so that I can speed that process up a bit. We have got 750 new houses that we have put $120 million into this year’s Budget for as well.Marama Fox: Is the Minister prepared to continue to work with the Māori Party to support marae emergency housing providers and community housing providers to provide the necessary assistance required to meet the emergency needs of the homeless whānau; if so how does she intend to target that $41 million not just in Auckland but also in the regions?Hon PAULA BENNETT: Of the $41 million from memory I think it is $32 million that will get divided up amongst emergency housing providers. Of that it is a spread throughout New Zealand. Of the 3000 places around half will be in Auckland and the rest will be in the regions. An example might be that somewhere like Hamilton—a city of that size—is likely to be eligible for about 60 places. A town the size of Nelson for example is more like 20 places. Part of it will be existing beds but the other part will be new beds as well. But what is raised by the member often is that also we have now got to have homes for them to go permanently into. So those are emergency places there which is why we have got the new build programme which is going on as well and a significant number of new houses are coming on board.Marama Davidson: If the Minister does give any funding to Te Puea Marae will the funding last till the end of the homeless housing crisis and will the Minister tell Aucklanders when that will be?Hon PAULA BENNETT: I do not agree with the second part of the question but with the first part of the question certainly I had people asking whether or not Te Puea Marae should be an emergency housing provider. I personally think that there are probably easier ways that we could help them. Te Puni Kōkiri has already put in I think $10000 and so we are now looking at whether there is something that we can do if that money is running out to help them keep going for a bit longer.