17 Oct 2025: Koutu land sale, homeless

Media: One News

Topic: Koutu land sale

Enquiry

Following a previous enquiry relating to the sale of a property in Koutu which is to be used for social housing, the reporter sought data relating to the concentration of social housing in Rotorua.

Response

Rotorua Lakes Council doesn’t hold data on the total concentration of social housing by suburb, that information would need to come from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (MHUD).

What we do have is data on new dwelling construction by suburb, and from that we can estimate how many may be social housing. Based on this, Koutu ranks sixth in terms of the number of social houses constructed since 2018. The highest number of social houses built over that period has been in Pukehangi North.

It’s also worth noting that the figures include all new builds in each suburb, not just social housing, so the numbers reflect a mix of housing types.

We provided the following data: SH by suburb

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Media: The Spinoff

Topic: Homelessness

Enquiry

I'm a freelance journalist writing a report for The Spinoff on homelessness in Rotorua. You'll be aware that since the closure of many of the emergency housing motels there has reportedly been an increase in visible homelessness in the city, and I'm keen to hear about what the council has done so far to help tackle the issue, what you'll do if re-elected, and what help, if any, you'd like to see from central government.

Response

Mayor Tapsell was interviewed today and covered off the following points –

• Improving housing outcomes has always been a priority for council and continues to be
• Homeless has become a key issue
• While not an issue council can directly solve, we have taken a proactive leadership approach
• Working with partners on solutions to urgent issues and also taking a more long-term approach by developing a strategy to ensure better interventions are in place earlier in future
• Homelessness has had a big impact on our CBD and businesses
• Council has taken an educate, encourage and enforce if necessary approach
• Trespassing has been used as a last resort and when behaviours require it
• Community Safety Team & Guardians always engaging with homeless individuals and building trust to help support solutions & improvements
• They’re also engaging with CBD businesses and workers
• Have had success connecting homeless individuals with new MSD case worker
• There is a lot of work going on in the background and steady progress is being made towards improving the situation
• Have had good engagement from other agencies and now working well together
• Community safety has also been a priority and we’ve seen big improvements from working with Police and other organisations through our Community Safety Plan
• Pleased to see CEH motels ending soon – this was a big issue for Rotorua
• Because of this we have received significant support from current Govt to address the issues
• Have had record numbers of homes consented and built in past few years – confident there is enough housing for those coming out of EH
• Couldn’t have achieved our housing results without our iwi partners
• Delivering homes isn’t the only issue though – social and health issues play a big role in homelessness
• Ministry of Education and Health are at the table working towards solutions with us
• Need better Policy to help us manage the emergency housing issue within backpackers – have started work on a Plan Change to address this
• Ultimate solution is identifying why people are homeless, where investment can have the biggest impact, streamline services and support, and focus should be on keeping people in their current homes.