Tama Potaka. Photo: RNZ/ Ella Stewart
Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka is not committing to any target when it comes to getting people out of motels and into social housing just yet.
The government on Wednesday announced it would prioritise families with children who have been in emergency housing for 12 weeks or more, pushing them in front of others waiting for proper housing; and make it harder for people to get into emergency housing in the first place.
Housing Minister Chris Bishop said the overall goal was to "end the blight that is emergency housing", reducing the number reliant on it from 3000 families to "a few people [spending] a small amount of time in motels".
But building more social housing on top of what is already planned is not part of the government's solution.
"I don't think it's about creating more social houses," Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka told Checkpoint.
"I think it's really about focusing on the young people, children, 800 families in fact who are in emergency hotels and motels right now. There's nearly 3000 kids there and it's making a lot of people very unhappy and uncomfortable, including myself."
There are 25,000 families on the waiting list for social housing. Asked if this new policy would simply make the list 800 families longer, Potaka said many of those in emergency housing were already on the waitlist for social housing, but not all of them.
"I think the data actually shows, and the evidence is that people who are in emergency hotels don't always go to social houses. That's not actually the case. Many go to private and other locations, transitional included. So I think that the data suggests something different to what we're assuming, and certainly what I've seen indicates that a lot of people who are in the emergency housing situation - very difficult with families - do not automatically go into a social housing place like Kāinga Ora or a community housing provider."
As of December, the median waiting time to get a place in social housing was 300 days. Asked what his "goal time" would be, Potaka declined to give one.
"I'm not going to comment on that right now… No, we're not into that space, but you know, tai ho, the time will come and we will hopefully establish targets around those and other matters."
Right now, emergency housing is costing taxpayers about $340 million a year. The average time spent in motels and other emergency providers is 26 to 28 weeks. The scheme was started under the previous National-led government in 2015, and initially had an estimated budget of just $2m.
"What we're saying is that a number of people who are living in emergency housing right now, families with children, young children who often get moved around to different places and motels, we want to stop the large-scale use of motels and hotels and returning them to a really and briefly needed last resort," Potaka said.
In response to the government's announcement, Labour's Carmel Sepuloni said it "sounds to me like National is content with more rough sleepers and people with nowhere to go".
"They won't commit to building more social housing beyond 2025 and they're adding to the workload of the [Ministry of Social Development] front line while cutting their budget.
"The people we are talking about who need a home are vulnerable. Some will be leaving tough or dangerous situations, some will have disabilities or mental health conditions. Very little information has been released about what the impact on these people will be. It is not good for anyone - the person, [Ministry of Social Development] or the public - if people are turfed onto the streets.
"The numbers in emergency housing have been trending down because the previous government was building social houses, had increased the number of public home places and increased funding for housing support to stop people falling into homelessness. National must commit to continuing the work Labour was doing."