Tama Potaka: Associate Housing Minister on the reduction of people in emergency housing

The Government has reduced the number of people in emergency housing motels by 75%, reaching their target five years early. 

There are now just under 600 households in emergency motels. 

How did they do it? 

Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka joins the show to discuss the major success. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The government is having a party. They're celebrating hitting its
KPIs five years early. When it comes to reducing the
number of people in emergency housing hotel motels by seventy
five percent. They gave themselves five years to do that.
They've done it already. There are now just under six
hundred households in emergency motels and Damapotaka is the Associate

(00:22):
Housing Minister and joints now.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, Hello, tamer Hey Kire, how are you today?

Speaker 1 (00:29):
I'm very well. You've beaten your own target by five years.
So was the target too easy?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Look? I think that there are a lot of key
we's are doing it tough out there in housing, not
only those that have been living in motels, but there's
a real serious housing crisis out there. We've worked hard
at focusing on achieving the target, which we thought was
a challenging one, but one we could really commit ourselves to.
I think through the hard work of many officials, a
bit of political leadership, and some pretty diligent decision making,

(00:56):
we're be able to reach the target. But now there
is the question of maintaining the target, maintaining where we're at,
and also dealing with the bigger emergency out there.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
How did you do it well?

Speaker 2 (01:07):
We were really careful and clear about eligibility for people
to go into emergency housing. That was one of the
steps that we took, So being absolutely clear about who
is eligible to get into emergency housing and making sure
it's for a genuine need to the right question to ask.
The second thing was that we provided a lot of
support around housing brokers and navigators and others to enable

(01:28):
people to come out of emergency housing, but also for
those people that might fall in to keep them out
of emergency housing, so that it was a variety of
products that we could help housing support products help people
stay out of emergency housing. The third thing we did,
which was massive, was really focusing on committee or children
and ensuring that they were prioritizing the social housing witless.
So as there were thousands of children in emergency housing

(01:52):
when we came into administration, we said, hey, children's a
big focus. We've got to get commodiquy out of motels
and hotels, dank ones, get them in a stable situation.
And as a result of that decision, we're able to
fast tract children and their families out and now two
thousand plus children have come out of emergency housing since
we took office.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
But critics say, you check them out of the motels
and you don't know where they are now. Is that true?

Speaker 2 (02:16):
That's very unfair and deliberately confusing. We actually arrived and
we knew where about fifty percent of people we're going
at that time when they left emergency housing. Now we
know where they are about eighty percent of people going.
There are a number of people we don't know where
they're going. People don't have to tell us, but we
do know where About eighty percent of those exiting emergency

(02:37):
housing are landing, whether or not it's social or transitional
fifty five percent or private housing maybe about twenty five
twenty six percent. What we also are very very happy
with is the number of tamochiq yekn that have come
out of emergency housing. We've got a couple of other
ideas that are currently in play. We've really focused on
tomodache Now. We've started up a bit of a programund

(02:58):
singles in couples with out tamdikey those that have been
in there for a very long time two or three years,
and trying to get them out as well.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Good stuff. Tymer Portaka currently I'll have to know. I
thank you so much for your time today.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
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