Wellington City Mission opens new transitional housing facility, Te Pā Pori stuff.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stuff.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The way forward? Transitional housing, Cassels said. People in emergency housing were signed on to short-term contracts by the Ministry of Social Development, known as Emergency Housing Special Needs Grants, one week at a time. Transitional housing, however, was contracted for an average of around 12 weeks, and typically included some wraparound supports, depending on the provider. “I don’t think the emergency housing system was ever contemplated, or designed, to deal with such a dramatic increase in the number of people who needed to use it. “I believe that inevitably there’ll be a series of imperfect steps before we find a solution. That solution is obviously, slowly but surely, moving from emergency housing to transitional housing.”
It’s not an uncommon story. The machinery of emergency housing held 622 Wellington households in its gears at last count. The people in those households are signed on to short-term contracts with emergency housing providers, funded through grants provided by the Ministry of Social Development, one week at a time. But those contracts aren’t protected by the Residential Tenancies Act, giving people in emergency housing a shaky claim on the title “tenant”, and no certainty of shelter beyond seven days. On the other hand, the contracts sometimes roll over indefinitely – in some cases for years – because the actual social housing wait list now exceeds 22,000 people.
Wellington baby s death at emergency housing site being treated as unexplained stuff.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stuff.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.