22 February 2023
Media: NZME (Rotorua Daily Post and BOP Times)
Topic: Costs related to emergency housing
Enquiry
I have a query related to a matter from today’s council meeting (and detailed on page 19 of the meeting’s agenda ).
Can you please tell me:
- why is the council having to pay $680,000 of residual costs for emergency housing (as suggested in the agenda and meeting)? What does this cover?
- can you please explain why the council is having to pay anything at all in regards to emergency housing?
- are there any plans to object or refuse to pay this money? If so, please elaborate. If not, why not?
- is there any further detail regarding how other costs associated with emergency housing which is expected to be shared with the Ministry of Housing? If so, what is the share ratio and what is the council expecting to pay here?
Subsequent from reporter:
Also, just one quick (hopefully simple) question. The mayor and many others referred to the end of the financial year in today's meeting when they were discussing the council's finances. There was a reference to there being "three months" before the end of this financial year which has thrown me a little.
Can you please tell me when exactly is the end of the financial year (in reference to today's financial discussions)? June 30?
Response
We provided the following information:
Just to clarify, council is not contributing to the cost of providing emergency housing but has a regulatory role which, as is the case with any regulatory function of council, incurs costs and not all of these costs are recoverable.
As outlined in the report on p19, the costs to council are those associated with monitoring of motels that are providing emergency housing and with hearings and deliberations (ie the recent consenting process for 13 motels contracted by MHUD to provide emergency housing).
Council is seeking to recover a portion of the costs of the consenting process from MHUD as per its Fees and Charges policy. Some has already been paid.
The “residual” costs are the remainder, non-recoverable costs to council associated with the consenting process and with the regulatory work that has been undertaken with regards to motels providing emergency housing.
Re subsequent question from reporter:
We clarified that yes, the end of the financial year is 30 June but that by the time the report came back and decisions re levels of service were made, there would be just 3 months to implement.