From the Community and District Development Committee Meeting
Yesterday at the Community and District Development Committee Meeting, elected members received an update on progress against the Rotorua Housing Accord outcomes, an update on mitigations now in place to prevent future issues at the Sir Howard Morrison Centre, and received draft Statements of Intent for Council Controlled Organisations RotoruaNZ and Rotorua Regional Airport Limited.
Housing Accord progress update
The Rotorua Housing Accord (the Accord), signed 9 December 2022, commits The Crown, Rotorua Lakes Council and Te Arawa Iwi to a shared effort towards resolving housing issues in Rotorua.
Two working groups have been established to support the Accord's Governance and Steering Group in pursuing the Accord's two high level objectives:
- Objective One: Care, Well-being and managing emergency housing
- Objective Two: Housing Delivery
The steering group and working groups have now met several times and have agreed on communications protocols and established key dashboards/measures to track progress against overall outcomes.
Elected members heard that emergency housing motel use in Rotorua appears to be trending down and were referred to details from the February 2023 Rotorua Temporary Housing Dashboard published by Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga - Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD):
- Rotorua has 32 motels in use as temporary housing in Rotorua currently
- EHSNG’s are down from 17 to 16 compared to January 2023
- Number of households requiring temporary housing has increased from 348 to 375 (EHSNG and Contracted)
- Housing composition – Children in temporary housing is slightly up from 321 to 330
- Public homes have increased from 905 to 909
- Transitional housing has also increased from 178 to 180
Supporting the objective to end the use of mixed-use motels for emergency housing, Council is continuing to support RotoruaNZ to publish their dashboard providing information on tourism accommodation that is not being used for emergency housing. Council also has a dedicated team working on regulatory action to prevent motels that have exited from emergency housing from pivoting towards providing short term residential tenancies.
To support the wellbeing of people living in emergency housing motels, Council is prioritising exiting uncontracted tourism accommodation from emergency housing ahead of reducing the use of Contracted Emergency Housing motels and has nominated Council’s Director Thriving Communities to join the Housing Accord work streams to support this work.
Supporting the objective to manage the entry and placement of individuals and whānau into emergency housing, Council is supporting the operation of the Community Liaison Group (a condition of resource consents having been secured for the 13 motels used for Contracted Emergency Housing) and will conduct monthly monitoring of the 13 contracted emergency housing premises over the next two years.
To mitigate current and prevent further adverse social, cultural, environmental, and economic effects of emergency housing on the Rotorua community, Council is actively participating in the Rotorua All of Government Group to help address the use of tourist accommodation for longer term tenancies and is currently developing a Community Safety Strategy in partnership with the Rotorua Police.
Elected members also heard that the housing pipeline of construction in Rotorua is slowing but is reflecting existing commitments:
- Net Dwellings completed – 270 in year to December 2022 (up from 189 the year before)
- Net Dwellings under construction – 365 at end of December 2022 (up from 279 a year earlier)
- Net Dwellings consented and waiting for construction to begin - 130 at end of December 2022 (up from 101 a year earlier)
- Net Dwellings with building consent applications being processed - 143 at end of December 2022 (up from 127 a year earlier)
Go to p14 of the meeting agenda to read the full report on this matter. Watch this section of the meeting on the livestream recording HERE.
Sir Howard Morrison Centre update
A report to the Committee detailed technical issues that led to the cancellation of the opening gala show at the Sir Howard Morrison Centre on 17 February.
The report explained that a thorough investigation has been conducted by both IT and Sir Howard Morrison Centre teams and remedial measures have been undertaken following the cancellation to prevent reoccurrence of the same issues in future.
The purpose of the opening show was to showcase the facility’s capabilities and local artists across a range of genres. The Gala was scheduled over three days. A VIP opening night which included ticketed patrons took place on 16 February, followed by a public ticketed show on 17 February, and an open day for the community on Saturday 18 February.
Go to p10 of the meeting agenda to read the full report on this matter. Watch this section of the meeting on the livestream recording HERE and view the presentation slides relating to this report HERE.
Statements of Intent for Council Controlled Organisations
The Committee received draft Statements of Intent (SOI) for RotoruaNZ and the Rotorua Regional Airport Limited for the financial year starting 1 July 2023 and resolved to submit feedback to each company before they provide their finalised SOIs prior to 30 June 2023.
The SOIs outline the activities and intentions of a council-controlled organisation for the year and the objectives to which those activities will contribute and provides the basis for performance accountability.
Go to p22 of the meeting agenda to read the full report on this matter and view the Statements of Intent. Watch this section of the meeting on the livestream recording HERE and view the presentation slides highlighting the feedback to be submitted HERE.