Upston Louise; Sepuloni Carmel; Salesa JennyHon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): Thank you Madam Chair. I want to pick up where the Minister in the chair Carmel Sepuloni just left off with her 18000 houses in four years' time and just look at some of the numbers in terms of the 350000 households at the end of June last year—it'll be a lot more than that who were being supported by the accommodation supplement—now the 23000 on the social housing register. Before we talk about those in the worst circumstances the 8500 in motels of which 4000 are children—that's clearly a gap. I want to know given that emergency housing special needs grants—the eligibility was extended from seven days because the original intention was that they were used for severe cases for up to seven days. That's been extended to three weeks. How many people are now staying beyond the three weeks they are eligible for? The longest when I asked at the annual review was two years. I want to know what it is now and I want to know how many properties how many motels the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) have stopped using because they are substandard and what steps MSD is taking so that more families and more children are being prevented from the harm they are exposed to each and every day they stay in these places.Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development and Employment): There were a lot of questions in there from that member and I know that we're running out of time but I will do my best. With regards to those that are in emergency accommodation the support that is in place we did move to actually instigate a few different roles so that we can support people better that are in emergency accommodation navigators being one. Many of the people that are in emergency accommodation need support to access a range of services. It may be out of the scope of what MSD is able to provide whether that be mental health support whether that be family violence support whether that be some other type of health support. So the navigator positions that we instigated and funded are our honest attempt to be able to provide the wraparound support that people need.With regards to the length of time that people are in emergency accommodation the majority of people are out within six months. We did extend the grant from one week to three weeks and that was due to the fact that it was putting undue pressure on families to try and source accommodation in some instances where it was very difficult to source accommodation because of the lack of supply but also in some instances because there are other barriers to them being able to get into more stable and secure accommodation—private rentals perhaps—things like credit things like—particularly that but other things as well that might be a barrier to them being able to get into long-term accommodation. So it made sense to extend it to three weeks so that at least these families and individuals that were in emergency accommodation had time to be able to actually sort out the other things that might be happening in their lives as well as look fairly and reasonably for accommodation that might be available to them.There are some outliers that are in emergency accommodation for longer than the six months or less that I said earlier. Usually those are very complex cases. Those cases existed under the previous National Government as well. Sometimes it is hard to house people that perhaps have mental health issues perhaps have drug and addiction problems or other sorts of complex challenges that make it hard to get them into longer-term accommodation. I want to make it clear that not everyone that's in emergency accommodation has those same challenges. There are some people who have just for whatever reason—they may have lost their private market rental because it's been sold and then have actively been looking for accommodation and not been able to find it and so therefore they end up in MSD looking for emergency accommodation for an interim period until they are able to find it. So there are a range of complex cases that we're dealing with in emergency accommodation.But the point that I want to end with is that no one wants to see people in emergency accommodation but until we are able to meet the demand with respect to housing—and we are on track to deliver on our commitment to housing that we set out—people do need to have some sort of accommodation. The reality for us is that we would much rather see people in emergency accommodation in the likes of motels than we would want to see them on the streets or living in their cars.Hon Louise Upston: Madam Chair.CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jenny Salesa): Time is up for this part of the debate Hon Louise Upston.