Two motels are funded on a rolling basis by the government as part of a scheme called transitional housing that aims to give homeless people a temporary roof while charities work to find them more permanent homes.
A spokesperson for Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) said although no firm decision had been made about the Dunedin motels, there was an intention to "progressively stop using motels for transitional housing across the country and [HUD] will exit most of the motels being used for this purpose by the middle of this year".
The Otago Daily Times knows the location of the two motels but is not naming them to protect the vulnerable occupants living there at present. One of the motels is in the city centre and the other is in the south of the city.
The charities that help people in the motels are The Salvation Army and Emerge and the motel owners are aware that they may lose their government contracts.
The transitional housing scheme has previously been criticised by homeless people for not providing enough support to enable them to get a permanent home, partly due to the shortage of social homes in the city and difficulties obtaining a private rental.
One woman sleeping in a tent in the Oval park, who had previously been in transitional housing in one of the two motels, said she worried the likely closure of the motels for use in the scheme could contribute to the city’s homelessness unless alternative housing was provided.
She had ended up in a tent because she had left transitional housing for a short-term private rental and had nowhere to go when the rental ended. She said she was told by the Ministry of Social Development that she had been taken off the housing register, the waiting list for a social home.
"They need to sort out my social housing and meanwhile I am stuck here. The closure of the motels if no other solutions are available would be a worry for homeless people."
HUD released data to the Otago Daily Times about the use of the two motels, saying that over the 12-month period starting February 2024, 105 households had been in transitional housing in the motels and 80 had exited it.
Only half — 53% — were found a social home. The government did not report where the other people went.
Transitional housing was set up with an intent that homes would usually be found for someone within three months. Six out of ten people had exited transitional housing in Dunedin within three months.
The median average length of stay in a motel was nine weeks, but the longest amount of time a household had spent in transitional housing before exiting it was more than 16 months.
