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Associate Housing Minister Tells Officials Domestic Violence Victims Get Emergency Accommodation
Lauren Crimp, Reporter
Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka has told officials to ensure people escaping domestic violence aren't turned away from emergency housing.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins raised the issue in the House two weeks ago.
The Prime Minister denied Hipkins' claim that women and children fleeing violent homes were "no longer eligible" for emergency accommodation.
"That is not happening. Those services are available and that support is available," he said.
But Potaka on Tuesday morning seemed to admit there were cases in which some of those people had not been able to get into emergency housing.
He told the Social Services and Community select committee: "it's unfortunate that it has happened, and it should not have happened."
Potaka believed the first he heard of domestic violence victims being turned away from emergency accommodation was in the House, and he did not recall hearing that from front line providers.
Following the exchange in the House, he was "pretty direct" in reminding Ministry of Social Development officials that was not the government's policy, he said.
"When I found out about this, I said... there's a policy in place, you must not use that as a basis for declining an emergency housing application to progress on the basis of that being a cause of that circumstance."
As part of government changes last year which made emergency housing harder to get into, and stay in, MSD staff assessed whether emergency housing applicants have "unreasonably contributed" to their situation.
But Potaka said that did not, and should not, include someone's decision to leave a violent home.
However, he reiterated emergency housing was still a last resort.
"Emergency housing isn't necessarily the best place to place or land victims of sexual and domestic violence... there are better options for people who have come out of that very dangerous and risky situation."
They included transitional, social and community housing, and there would be different availability in different places, he said.
The changes to emergency housing were brought in nearly a year ago as part of the government's effort to end the large-scale use of emergency housing.
Housing minister Chris Bishop had previously labelled emergency housing as one of the biggest public policy failures in the country's history, and he was adamant no one should be living in motels long-term, saying it carried a huge social and economic cost.
But opposition parties criticised proposed changes to the emergency housing system, saying it would leave people sleeping on the street.
The latest Ministry of Social Development figures showed at the end of May there were 453 households in emergency housing - down from 2,280 in the same month last year.
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