Life And Society / Housing

Hastings resident on programme that got her from motel to house

06:51 am on 25 August 2020

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Just twelve houses of a promised 200 that are meant to get homeless people in Hastings out of motels have so far been finished.

Hastings has one of the highest rates of people on the housing register, per capita, across New Zealand.

Last year the Government announced a special project for the city to help limit the numbers in motels and promised the new houses by the middle of next year.

Kotiro Hawaikirangi was lucky enough to move out of a motel and eventually into a papakainga, a group of houses where whanau live together.

She tells RNZ reporter Tom Kitchin what it was like living in a motel compared to now.