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300 Face Homelessness in Queenstown
Where to put Queenstown's holiday park residents?
About 300 residents of Queenstown's former Lakeview holiday park face being made homeless in six months.
Marcelo Bicca and a friend stacking wood for the winter. Photo: RNZ / Ian Telfer
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The cabins they call home are being demolished to make way for a new housing and hotel development.
The joint council and Ngai Tahu Tourism venture will build high density housing for more than 1500.
It is aimed at the booming tourism town's service workers.
But many of those workers already live in the holiday park and are wondering where they will go once it closes in October.
The head of the Queenstown Chamber of Commerce, Anna Mickell, said the new development is a sign of the times as older homes make way for new ones.
"It is expensive here, it's as expensive as Auckland and people have to accept that generally when they come here."
Ms Mickell said the people living at the former holiday park have been living there for a long time and that the cabins are run-down and not suitable for living in.
A workshop will be held in July to help the residents find somewhere else to live and Ms Mickell said the resident's employers are invited.
"What we were hoping to do was to get the employers and employees in the room and say, 'what assistance do you actually need'. It may be as simple as matching people into co-living arrangements and helping them with the cost of getting a bond together."
RNZ
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