Rotorua is taking steps to address the chronic housing crisis that the tourist town is suffering from, with a large number of homeless people filling its motels.
Now Rotorua Lakes Council, Te Arawa, Ngāti Whakaue and the Crown have teamed up in the Rotorua Housing Accord to reduce the number of emergency housing in Rotorua to near zero.
Rotorua mayor Tania Tapsell said that the accord was the first step in combining government, council and iwi efforts to build their way out of this problem.
The iwi partners had land available for development and wanted to house their own people on their land, which helped because Rotorua had a shortage of land.
Tapsell said it was important Ngāti Whakaue was involved as it was looking at the problem from a Treaty perspective and mana whenua being a part of that process was considered very important.
“It’s really important that mana whenua have a say in where homes are being built. It was very difficult for people including iwi when we were having people from out of town placed in our hotels.”
Motel homeless numbers fall
“Having them at the table will guarantee that we will be looking after our own.”
“Already the government has invested over $100 million into Rotorua alone. This partnership ensures the government makes decisions on investment and that we have a local voice at the decision-making table.”
Tapsell said this investment is across the spectrum of housing including the infrastructure that supports new builds, which in the past has been a reason housing plans haven’t worked out.
There had been talks from other councils about freeing up public green spaces but Tapsell stopped that from happening in Rotorua, arguing that green spaces were essential.
Last year the number of people using emergency housing in Rotorua was 372 but that number has since reduced to 168.
Attracting tourists
“That is a decrease by half. The number of motels that are being used has decreased by 20; what is really pleasing is the ministers and government have committed to reducing the use of motels for emergency housing."
Tapsell pointed out that Rotorua was a tourist destination and needed to keep attracting people to boost the tourism market back up, especially after the tourism slump during and post Covid-19.
The government has plans to build 300 homes by 2024 for social housing to help meet the needs of people in the motels.
“We are fast-tracking builds as much as possible. We’ve had an increase of 150 per cent of the consent of houses being built.”