Kerre Woodham: I'm not OK with the Govt giving out billions for emergency housing and failing to account for it

I have now seen the Sunday programme on emergency housing in Rotorua.

Really, it's what we have known has been happening, but seeing the inside of these motel units, seeing the cramped and squalid conditions in which many of them are living, seeing and hearing from the women who have been tenants in these houses, and who were supposed to be getting the sort of pastoral care from a highly paid welfare organisation.

It's just driven home so many of the failings of temporary accommodation and motels being used as temporary accommodation.

It also frightened the daylights out of me now the borders are open, that these motels are also being rented out to overseas tourists. They are in no condition for anybody to be in there, some of them.

Certainly, some of the ones highlighted by the TVNZ crew, you wouldn't put animals in there, far less vulnerable, high-needs families, far less overseas tourists who have spent a fortune looking for the holiday of a lifetime. They'll certainly get it, but it won't be what they imagined.

Steve Chadwick, the mayor of Rotorua, says she has gone to the Government and said we want to be able to stop the moteliers from renting out their motels to both tourists and to emergency housing providers, and I think that would be a very, very good start.

But seeing the exploitation of the vulnerable by opportunists drives home the failings of this system. Seeing the lack of accountability for the money being spent looking after these people, further underscores just how lax and careless this Government is with our money.

Since 2017, the Government has spent a billion dollars housing people in motels. Great for the moteliers.  Great for those that get on the gravy train of caring for the vulnerable. Where the hell has that money gone?

I am so sick and tired of this Government refusing to front up, refusing to answer questions. If they do answer on the rare occasion when a blue moon has risen in the sky and a Government minister will come on and talk about these huge programs that they have created to advance the cause of those who are most vulnerable with high, complex needs. If they do answer, it's a Bureau speak which is unintelligible. They don't answer the questions.

I'm not good with the Government taking billions and billions of dollars, handing it over to all the people have got on the gravy train and then failing to account for it.

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