Tania Tapsell: Rotorua Mayor on the increase in homelessness and rough sleeping

Rotorua's mayor says the story's the same across the country regarding people sleeping on the street. 

The Government's June Homelessness Insights report shows rough sleeping's sharply increased, doubling by some measures over 24 months.  

Mayor Tania Tapsell is relieved the Government is looking at finding a solution at a national level. 

She told Ryan Bridge a lot of transient people are starting to go to other regions when they can't find a place to stay. 

Tapsell says she spoke to other mayors at a recent conference in Christchurch, who say homeless people are coming from all over the place. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Finally we got some numbers on homelessness and not that
pretty Nearly five thousand kiwis a living across the country. Now,
we looked at the census data that's the most recent
and solidly reliable, a thirty seven percent jump between twenty
eighteen and twenty twenty three. Auckland has seen a spike.
Christ Church up Taranaki up a two hundred and fifty

(00:22):
fifty percent in just six months. One of the regions
facing homelessness is Rota do Atania Tapsle's the mayor with
me now, Hi Tanya, good morning, Good to have you
on the show. Do you think it's going up in
your area.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Well, we've actually had targeted intervention to get it down,
but what we have seen is probably there's a lot
of transient people across the country, so you know as
emergency house, your motile's clothes, or they're not able to
find accommodation. They're starting to go to other regions. And
it's been interesting because we've recently had the local government
conference where I spoke with other mayors who were saying,

(00:59):
hey we get in your homeless or hey they're coming
from Auckland again. So I think it's good that the
government's looking at a national approach because you know what
blew my mind. At present, over five hundred and fifty
million dollars it's spent annually.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
On this half a billion bucks we're spending on homelessness agencies,
multiple agencies, transitional housing, housing first, rapid rehousing, other support services.
Do you think more because this will inevitably be the
call Tanya, we need more money for more wrap around services.
Is that going to solve it?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
No? I don't. And actually what I really acknowledge Minister
Bishop and also Minister paultucker On is when I looked
at their latest report that's come out, they're really focusing
on funding what works, so not only about better utilizing
existing programs quote, but also funding what works. And this
is actually really smart because we've seen the significant waste

(01:55):
of money on emergency housing motiles where the motalitas are
the only ones who seding. They're getting really rich millions
of dollars a year, and actually it's bad for the
communities and it's not safe for those in the homes.
So definitely the housing growth program is working. That's why
we've seen a significant reduction in udor Tudor. We almost

(02:15):
finished all of our emergency housing motils by the way,
that's great, but of what we really need to do,
and what the government has been pretty good at, even
on Board, is focusing on how do we stop this
like for good. It's not only about addressing the urgent issue,
but how do we go, Hey, there's a real problem
in our country. How do we stop people being at

(02:35):
risk of homeless and when they do come up on
the systems, how do we assist them appropriately?

Speaker 1 (02:40):
You said that at the start of this interview about
people coming between Who are these people that go between regions?

Speaker 2 (02:48):
So it was quite interesting. In the report as well,
they looked at the demographic breakdowns of those who are
living without shelter, and the median age was actually fifty
five years and often the biggest reason was, and I
think it was a round about sety percent off the
top of my head, was people who have had a
relationship breakdown or a breakup, And honestly, that's what I

(03:11):
was hearing from the people in the motowns as well.
So you know, people are living tough, they're going week
to week and sometimes there is a genuine need for
transitional housing. But what I acknowledge is that there's a
clear message that we will end the large scale use
of motowns for emergency.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Howping, that's definitely on the way out town. You thank you, Tonya.
Tap sword off through a met.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
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