9. Question No. 9—HousingNICOLA WILLIS (National) to the Minister of HousingQuestion No. 9—Housing9. NICOLA WILLIS (National) to the Minister of Housing: How many motels if any has the Government purchased or leased in the past three years for public housing purposes and how much does the Government currently spend per day on motel accommodation for people in housing need?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Housing): This Government has made a firm commitment to ensuring all New Zealanders have a warm dry home. We are rebuilding the State housing sector with new public and transitional housing and while this happens we use motels as interim accommodation for people who would otherwise be sleeping rough in campgrounds and overcrowded situations. Between 2018 and 2020 three motels were purchased for use as transitional housing. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development also has one direct leasing project. Through Vote Housing and Urban Development this Government spends approximately $142761.75 for 924 contracted transitional housing motel units. I am proud of the work that this Government did to ensure that we tackled homelessness during the COVID-19 lockdown and we still have 1067 motel units supporting people identified as homeless during that lockdown period. Their approximate spend is $154715 per day for these motel units. However this is not our long-term plan. Our Government has a plan to move people out of homelessness and motels and into publicly owned fit for purpose transitional housing. When we came into Government there were—SPEAKER: Order! Order! The member has answered the question.Nicola Willis: Does the Government have any plans to purchase more motels for use as public housing?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Our plan to address the housing crisis is to only ever purchase motel units if they make the best housing solution sense. We are only using purchased motels where they are gutted they are refitted and they are fit for purpose for people to live in. And the ones that we have purchased—for example I don't want to see families unable to send their kids to school with a lunch because a motel unit only has a beer fridge and a family cannot budget through that. So we will only buy motels when it makes good housing sense.Nicola Willis: Does the Government have plans to purchase more motel units for public housing?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: I think the member is getting confused between transitional and public housing. These are two quite separate things. Transitional housing is sometimes done through motel units. It is not our preference to do that. And—if I had completed my answer—when we came into Government there were 1718 transitional places of which there were 293 motel units left by the previous Government. There are now 3653 transitional housing spaces. We have funded through each of our Budgets permanent publicly owned transitional houses which are fit for purpose for families to make their lives in. That is our preference—not motels—for kids to grow up in.Nicola Willis: Is it correct as reported that the Government has renewed an attempt to buy up freehold titles to motels across the country for public housing?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Of course the purchase of motels for public housing was not new. While we have purchased three during our time in Government in a six-month period between 2016 and June 2017 the previous Government purchased four. Our intent is actually to add to the housing supply by adding long-term publicly owned transitional homes. We will only purchase motels where they can be refurbished to be made sense into transitional housing spaces.Nicola Willis: Will the Minister rule out purchasing any more motel units for use as public housing; or is it her intention to continue spending an average of $154000 per day housing New Zealanders in temporary motels?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: It is certainly not our intention to continue spending that money housing New Zealanders in motels. This is why we had commitments in Budget 2018 we had a commitment in Budget 2019 and we have had a commitment in Budget 2020 around finally funding transitional housing in a meaningful way in this country. The party that that member is a member of did not even start addressing homelessness till 2017 after nine years in Government. They need to hang their heads in shame.Nicola Willis: Does she agree with the Hon Grant Robertson's reported comment that we did end up having to use motels again but we continue to want to move away from that."; and if so can she provide any evidence that the number of people living in motels has reduced since Labour came to power in 2017?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: I've always found it's good practice to agree with the Minister of Finance and of course we do want to move away from using motels but what we will not tolerate on this side of the House is people living on the street and people living in cars. And that is why during the COVID lockdown we made it our business to make sure that everybody could shelter safely. So if we're faced with a choice between people living in cars or on the streets we will do what is needed to give those New Zealanders a pathway to housing. But we are a Government that has shown a commitment to tackling homelessness. It is a pity the previous Government did not."