1 Aug 2025: homeless sleep pods, infrastructure upgrades

Media: Rotorua Daily Post

Topic: Sleeping pods for homeless

Enquiry

Hilton McLachlan from Tuff Plastic Moulders has been in touch with me regarding the pods Julie King from Love Soup was getting made for the homeless.

His business worked with Julie to design the pods and he's disappointed the idea didn't get off the ground.

Basically he is saying Julie King stepped up to try and make a difference and rather than working with her, the council sent warnings about enforcement action.

He said the following:

• The response should be, “How can we help?”
• Unfortunately, the council has declined an invitation to collaborate with this group, citing obstacles that could easily be addressed.
• It’s disheartening to see that while sleeping in a car, van, or campervan is tolerated, purpose-built units designed for safety and dignity are met with opposition.
• Surely, anything is better than sleeping on the ground under a plastic sheet.
• It was intended as a transitional solution as a wheel-in-wheel-out for night-time sleeping, to get people off the streets into something warm and dry.
• The Council’s stance seems to be: make life difficult for the homeless and hope they disappear. But homelessness is a nationwide—and global—challenge. Ignoring it won’t make it go away.
• Potential solutions include:
• Supporting grassroots initiatives like sleeping pods and community-led shelters that offer immediate, humane alternatives to rough sleeping.
• Expanding Housing First programmes, which provide stable housing as a foundation for addressing other challenges like mental health and addiction.
• Improving access to transitional housing with wraparound services, including employment support, counselling, and healthcare.
• Collaborating with frontline organisations such as Auckland City Mission and the Salvation Army, who have deep experience and trust within homeless communities.
• Removing bureaucratic barriers that prevent innovative solutions from being implemented — especially when they are cost-effective and community-driven.

These are not radical ideas — they’re practical, compassionate, and proven to work. It’s time for councils to stop putting up roadblocks and start working with those who are trying to help.

**

I have attached an image of what Hilton and Julie had in mind for the Village of Hope. The photo shows the pods on a movable trailer with a toilet at the end.

I have your response already about the council's obligations to ensure consents are met but I was hoping you could elaborate on your obligations and explain why you can't bend the rules, despite the best of intentions of people trying to help.

Can I also ask the council to respond to the criticism and offer any comment around how it would be willing to work with Julie King on finding a way to make the pods compliant.

Also, feel free to add any other comment you think is relevant (and I can also recap what you have sent previously.

Response

From a Council Spokesperson:

Nobody wants people to sleep rough and our staff, the police and other groups we work with encourage people to take up help and support that is available, including for housing. Council has still received no proposals or details about what is proposed from Julie King or Love Soup.

We have told the group we are happy to work with them but have not heard back from them since we last provided you with a response. As we indicated then, we believed that what we understood their idea to be would likely require some sort of consent but without details or an application we are unable to provide proper advice about this. We have not declined any invitation to collaborate with the group but, as we’ve explained, we have no details to go on. We are happy to work directly with the group if they wish to provide details so we can properly assess what might be required.

Council has a legal responsibility for public safety and regulations relating to provision of accommodation are about protecting people. We cannot knowingly ignore the regulations.

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Media: Rotorua Daily Post

Topic: Infrastructure upgrades

Enquiry

The reporter was asking for the total cost for the two projects in the media release headlined; Two major infrastructure upgrades for Rotorua

Response

The reporter was informed the projects were multimillion-dollar projects, but the contracts are commercially sensitive.