Motels are not state houses

Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, March 28th, 2017 - 39 comments
Categories: housing, national, useless - Tags: , , , , , ,

This is crazy:

Motels given millions to house homeless

Five Auckland motels have received more than $1.3 million of taxpayer money in just three months to house homeless people.
…
The grants are given to people “when all other options are exhausted, to provide a short-term solution”, but Salvation Army social policy unit director Ian Hutson said the situation could have been avoided.

“What we’re reaping is related to the lack of early intervention, and ideally we don’t want more and more emergency accommodation, what we want is affordable housing,” Mr Hutson said.
…
In total, the ministry granted 8860 grants to 2616 people in the last quarter of last year – at a total cost of $7,735,788, or an average of about $2.5m per month.

Associate Minister for Social Housing Alfred Ngaro said the government was working on other options. …

It’s almost as if deliberately running down state housing stock doesn’t make the need for homes magically go away – who could possibly have predicted that? Having painted themselves into a corner the Nats are reduced to this:

Govt to buy more motels to house homeless as its role in emergency housing grows

The Government will buy up to three more motels and construct modular homes as part of a new $300 million investment in emergency housing.

The huge funding package, announced this afternoon, is designed to lift the number of temporary housing places to 2200 at any one time – up from current levels of 800 places.

Announcing the funding boost at Parliament, Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett said the package was a “gap-filler” until more permanent housing could be built. …

Motels are not state houses – even Bill English knows that:

At the time, Prime Minister Bill English conceded that motels were “not the right place” for homeless people, because many of them had highly complex needs.

You’ve had nine long years to see this coming.

39 comments on “Motels are not state houses ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Draco T Bastard 1
    28 March 2017 at 9:28 am

    It’s almost as if deliberately running down state housing stock doesn’t make the need for homes magically go away – who could possibly have predicted that?

    And makes emergency housing at extortionate rates by profiteers necessary.

    I’d say that National predicted it perfectly and their donors are laughing all the way to the bank.

    • Sabine 1.1
      28 March 2017 at 9:32 am

      +1 and then some.

      been saying it for years, this is not incompetence this is by design. And the taxpayer foots the bill. yei us.

    • Richard McGrath 1.2
      28 March 2017 at 10:30 am

      National and their rich prick property owner mates have motivation not to reform/abolish the RMA. It keeps rental prices high and shuts out the competition. Simple economics really.

      • One Anonymous Bloke 1.2.1
        28 March 2017 at 10:40 am

        The RMA was passed in 1991.

        This graph shows quite clearly that state housing stock increased between 1999 and 2008, having fallen in the ’90s.

        The RMA is not the problem.

        Why do you tell so many lies?

        • Richard McGrath 1.2.1.1
          28 March 2017 at 10:53 am

          Why do you falsely accuse others of lying? Failure to reform the RMA maintains the current degree of difficulty in building private rental accommodation. What part of that do you find difficult?

          [probably the assertion of fact without evidence, and the lack of explanation. How about you explain why you think that the RMA is the issue, and please back it up with something other than your personal reckons. thanks – weka]

          • One Anonymous Bloke 1.2.1.1.1
            28 March 2017 at 11:00 am

            The fact that the only people who ever make that claim are right wing politicians and their useful idiots, who have a track record of lying.

            For just one example of why “your” sponge-parrot opinion is wrong, what is it about the RMA that causes “ghost houses”?

            According to another of “your” sponge-parrot opinions, the market is better at building houses, so if Lab5 managed it, and they did – see the graph, what is wrong with the market? Is it reality-challenged too?

            • Richard McGrath 1.2.1.1.1.1
              31 March 2017 at 10:18 pm

              Your graph proves nothing – without the RMA there might have been more state housing than there is now. I note the end point of the graph hasn’t yet reached the heights of 1991, though sale of state houses is probably a factor in that.

              My comments on the RMA were directed at the private building industry, which is hampered by the RMA. Unless, of course, you’re arguing that the RMA has streamlined the building of houses, and that architects, builders and homeowners alike are shouting their praises for the wonderful RMA from the rooftops.

          • weka 1.2.1.1.2
            28 March 2017 at 11:12 am

            see moderator note above, thanks.

          • ropata 1.2.1.1.3
            28 March 2017 at 11:21 am

            RMA might be a factor in the current crisis but it’s nothing compared to the influence of grasping landlords/investors/developers/suppliers who are profiting from insanely high housing prices, the blame belongs to successive governments who have encouraged this behaviour (choking supply & artificially stimulating demand)

            • Richard McGrath 1.2.1.1.3.1
              31 March 2017 at 10:19 pm

              Agree that the housing market is squeezed by a supply problem. Wonder why that could be?

  2. Antoine 2
    28 March 2017 at 9:35 am

    Sounds like a bit more social housing would be the go

    • Sabine 2.1
      28 March 2017 at 9:56 am

      State Houses is government housing for people that don’t have enough revenue to rent of the free market.

      Social Housing is government housing for people that don’t have enough money to rent of the free market.

      It does not matter that a private party might be invited to grift while pretending to render a service, as they will still get money from the government cause where else would the profit come from.

      The thing with conservatives is that they believe their shit smells good, when in fact its stinks across the country the way shit stinks.

    • AsleepWhileWalking 2.2
      28 March 2017 at 3:45 pm

      Is anyone else offended that the new normal for housing is for people to rely on the State?

      • lloyd 2.2.1
        28 March 2017 at 11:09 pm

        Ass Leap While Wanking, you offend me.
        If you oppose abortion and are lukewarm on family planning like some Dipton sheepfarmers, you will get an increase in population even if you don’t encourage immigration. If you don’t provide really cheap, quality education to the Tertiary level, you are going to have a population that can’t earn enough to buy a house because they are paying off their student loan or because they gave up being educated enough to get a good paying job, and the government controls inflation by playing with the home loan system. The population increase means you need more houses and if you haven’t trained enough builders and you sell the extra houses you had to fill gaps in the market there will be shortages and prices will be driven up by speculators happy to juggle high rents with property bubble profits.
        Seems to me that a government in this environment is duty bound to provide housing. It wasn’t the people desperate for housing that set up the situation they are in. It was the Government.
        I am offended by the new normal where fellow New Zealanders have to raise their families in cars because the present government doesn’t care about all New Zealanders – they only care about people with several millions of dollars in assets. Bastards in other words.

        If the state provides for the people as a whole, the country WILL prosper. Anyway Charity is a Christian thing to do. Any government that leaves families living in cars can’t be run by Christians.

      • Siobhan 2.2.2
        29 March 2017 at 1:52 pm

        The ‘new normal’ that gets me is the number of landlords charging rents so out of kilter with wages that the Landlords require tax payer subsidies to the tune of $2.2billion a year in the form of ‘Accomodation Supplements.

  3. tc 3
    28 March 2017 at 10:05 am

    Wheres the FOI digging from the opposition on the profits and deals done in GI/point england etc.

    This gutting was well underway before the last election and its as if they weren’t expecting to win that, got back in and went ok what now…..hey state houses could reel us in some brownie points with the backers.

    And here we are….the blighted future.

  4. Jenny Kirk 4
    28 March 2017 at 10:11 am

    So where are the modular houses they said they’d build ? Nowhere to be seen, but the motel owners must be lapping it up !
    And the government is going to spend the $41 million they set aside for four years of homelessness, within the next 15 months just to house people in motels.
    This is ridiculous.

    But – hey – its a clever political stunt.

    It gets all those people out of the streets, out of their cars and tents during the winter months when everyone would be complaining about their plight. Out of sight, out of mind.

    • Sabine 4.1
      28 March 2017 at 10:32 am

      not if it goes like last year, where people will be settled with tens of thousands of dollars of ’emergency costs’ to still end up on the street.

      and frankly if people in NZ were again to vote for this lot then maybe nz simply does not deserve better. Pity the poor people but at some stage people a. need to vote, b. need to vote for the next generation more then for their own, c. need to vote for the collective good of society.

      if the only thing in NZ that is left over in spades is greed then so be it. Sucks for us, true, but its a bit like in the US. At some stage people have to be responsible for what they vote for or for what they don’t vote for.

    • Keith 4.2
      28 March 2017 at 10:38 am

      Maybe by “modular housing” what is really meant is something like shipping containers, only repainted in bright colours with some holes cut in the side for windows with a little garden around it in a vacant lot! Then this will only be “temporary” but temporary is a very grey area is it not? Remember this is the National Party so laugh you may…..

      Probably best wait to see if they get back in first because if they do that will become the solution.

    • Draco T Bastard 4.3
      28 March 2017 at 12:53 pm

      It also means that those motels will be getting upgrades courtesy of the taxpayer which the new motel owners will benefit from once National sells them back to the original owners – at a loss to the government of course.

  5. Karen 5
    28 March 2017 at 10:38 am

    This doesn’t even make economic sense – they could have housed these families in rentals for a a lot less money and then the families would at least have some security. Schools in parts of Auckland have a 50% turnover every year because people have to keep moving. Some kids are missing out on school altogether.

    The only explanation for this policy is the Nats want to pretend they are doing something about homelessness because it is election year and then after the election it will be back out on the street for these families.

    I know Te Puea Marae is building 18 emergency places for the expected winter influx – could be these are the modular units? It is just another temporary solution however. The problem is that this government is ideologically opposed to state housing.

    It is obvious we need lots more state houses and to get them we need to change the government!

    • ropata 5.1
      28 March 2017 at 11:07 am

      The problem is that this government is ideologically opposed to state housing.

      Yes, you nailed it. But they will never say that in public. This “crisis” could be solved overnight with the strike of a legislative pen* but Blinglish and Nick(head) Smith prefer to talk not do. Their beloved ex leader Key couldn’t even hammer in a nail. The Gnats are all about the PR, not fixing real problems.

      * By legalising squatters rights to ghost houses, penalising property flippers, taxing foreign investors, recruiting/training more builders, protecting tradesmen from dodgy developers, throwing dishonest pricks in jail, capping immigration, acquiring some of the large empty warehouses and other disused spaces around the city, strengthening tenants’ rights, reinstating the Ministry of Works with a mission to build homes.

      • Antoine 5.1.1
        28 March 2017 at 12:57 pm

        To state the obvious, those things could not all be done overnight, and if they could, would not instantly solve the crisis.

        • Molly 5.1.1.1
          29 March 2017 at 12:50 pm

          You may need to look at Enrique Peñalosa who IIRC, had an overnight session with council after he was elected and began ripping up the streets the next day.

          Unlike in other places, the mayor of Bogota can be impeached for not meeting the promises made during an election.

          • weka 5.1.1.1.1
            29 March 2017 at 1:15 pm

            Heh.

            Antoine, houses can be built very quickly these days. And National govts find ways to pass legislation urgently when they need to.

            This is totally an ideologically created and sustained crisis.

      • Matthew Whitehead 5.1.2
        28 March 2017 at 1:58 pm

        The things you state would all definitely help, (although I think Labour would be a bit too neoliberal for a couple of them) but they wouldn’t “solve the problem overnight.” It would take years for the market to correct, just as it has taken decades for the problem to reach boiling point.

  6. s y d 6
    28 March 2017 at 12:10 pm

    Motels are not State Houses – mate, in some parts, even State Houses are not State Houses

    In our National Party provinces, state housing is being given to private sector chums, for unknown sums (if any)…
    is it a sale?
    is it a transfer?
    a signing across?

    can’t wait for the stories in a couple of years when the prime location properties are sold, the tenants shunted off to slums* in the middle of nowhere and Carrus Corporation has moved in and reaped the profit

    The you get people like Tommy Wilson (Kapai) who has fingers in the pie, nicely tucked into the right pockets, given free rein to sell all this as a ‘good news story’

    http://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/150259-new-social-housing-model-launched.html
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503343&objectid=11826164

    * modular housing, chinese FTA…..investing in infrastructure….

  7. Greg 7
    28 March 2017 at 2:53 pm

    they had 9 years to find other options times up

  8. Guerilla Surgeon 8
    28 March 2017 at 4:41 pm

    Went for a drive around the Hutt the other day, there’s probably a dozen or so sections where the government of pulled down state houses and left them bare. Probably more in streets I didn’t see.

  9. johnm 9
    28 March 2017 at 5:07 pm

    This government is insane. I really believe that.. I really despair that these madmen are f*cking up this country big time.

  10. Ad 10
    28 March 2017 at 5:17 pm

    +100 Anthony.

    Chuck this lot out.

  11. jcuknz 11
    28 March 2017 at 5:43 pm

    The concept of modular housing was brought up some months ago but Fletcher’s management said no The firm which was responsible for the original state house here in Dunedin said it wan’t feasible to mass produce basic but good housing to start fixing the crisis … I was and still am completely disgusted.

    A point about containers … they do NOT have to be shipping container with holes punched in the sides for windows … see this link which The Standard ran months ago
    https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2013/oct/24/brighton-housing-homeless-shipping-containers

  12. lloyd 12
    28 March 2017 at 10:39 pm

    Every time a right wing politician promises to “reform the RMA” you can guarantee the outcome will be slower processing of resource consents.
    The drive for this reform is always from their developer mates(or cabinet members themselves) who want to cut corners so they can make more profits or sell their good farming land for houses which are always a more profitable crop than cabbages.
    Every change to the RMA is followed by the RMA lawyers and the outcome is a more complex situation for the average resource consent applicant.
    The only RMA change that simplifies resource consenting is National Environmental Standards. An NES means the planning rules in that area are the same over the whole country, rather than being different under every District or Regional Plan. A government that promises a thorough set of NES rules will simplify Resource Consenting – not as exciting sounding as “reforming the RMA” but it will be better for the country in many ways.

  13. Tamati Tautuhi 13
    29 March 2017 at 4:02 am

    Obviously this is just a short term thing until the new State Houses are built, maybe they shouldn’t have rushed selling off the old ones?

  14. Takere 14
    30 March 2017 at 12:30 pm

    Week 8 in a motel @ $1190.00/wk. More than 25 people from WINZ,MSD Emergency Housing, HNZ ect … CM’s SCM’s CSR’s MSD Housing Guru’s at least 4 & the rest are mix of retards who dont know how to read the notes and are so far detached from reality and continue to promote the mantra that they can solve the issue by moving you from one motel to another, for an outcome for them, I refuse them with a coherent logical argument, backed up by evidence an a letter from Brendan Boyle CEO of MSD, also from Amy Adams, Anne Tolley & Alfred Ngaro.

    Basically, the “Service” is fuck’n useless!

    I could be here until September!