Charles Clarke is no rookie when it comes to hard times.
Health problems, drug use, and homelessness have coloured his adult life.
But Clarke, a former butcher and landscape worker, is a glass half-full sort of bloke, even as the last mouthfuls of his raspberry-flavoured cider disappear down his throat.
Ive got potential, I just need someone to pick me up, the 42-year-old says, as he leans against a fence outside Hamilton’s Microtel Lodge, a near-empty glass in one hand, a cigarette in the other.
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Clarke has stayed in the modest Ulster Street lodge for the past six months, just one of an ever-growing group of people who call the citys motels, hostels and hotels their home.
Charles Clarke has been living at the Microtel Lodge in Hamilton for the past six months. He’s on the waiting list for a state home.
Material provided to Stuff under the Official Information Act, reveal those staying in emergency housing in Hamilton has skyrocketed in recent years: from just 36 households in the December quarter of 2017, to 714 households in the final quarter of last year.
Those 714 households are estimated to represent 1200 people from singles and couples, to young families. Motel car parks now serve as makeshift playgrounds for children on bikes and scooters.
And footing the citys accommodation bill has been taxpayers, with costs ballooning from $106,701 (December quarter, 2017) to $10.2m for the three months to December, 2020.
Habitat for Humanity central region chief executive Nic Greene says many people have been shut out of the city’s rental market (file photo).
Up and down Hamiltons Ulster Street and Te Rapa Road, brightly-lit no vacancy signs stand out against the autumn sky, a glaring reminder of Hamiltons worsening housing crisis.
Its undoubtedly a crisis were facing, says Nic Greene, chief executive of Habitat for Humanitys central region.
Weve got people telling us that theyre going to rental viewings and there are 40 or 50 other families looking at the same house. At every point of the housing continuum, theres stress.
CHRISTEL YARDLEY/STUFF/Waikato Times
A boy pulls a wheelie outside Hamilton’s Te Rapa Motor Inn. Young children are a common sight around motels used for emergency housing.
Of the country’s top 10 suppliers of emergency housing, three premises Anglesea Motel & Conference Centre, Hygate Motor Lodge and the Boundary Court Motor Inn are located in Hamilton.
Since October, Greene and his staff have been piloting a get ready to rent course for those in emergency housing. The free sessions teach participants about their rights and obligations as renters, cover basic financial literacy, and coach them about how to sell themselves at house viewings.
Greene says resources and labour continue to be put into building high-end houses in Hamilton when the real demand is for affordable homes.
Brightly-lit no vacancy signs appear outside many motels along Hamilton’s Ulster Street and Te Rapa Road.
Latest figures from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) show Hamiltons median house price is now a record $750,000 a price increase of 17 per cent during the past 12 months.
People shut out of home-ownership due to runaway house prices have now become long-term renters, Greene says.
These people have good incomes so can get into a rental property, but thats just excluding others from getting into the market because there are so few rentals left.
So it just flows right down, and the really visible outcome of that is people in motels in Ulster St.
State housing agency Kinga Ora plans to build 164 new homes in Hamilton by June 2023.
National MP Nicola Willis says the Government must act urgently to remove barriers that slow down the building of new homes (file photo).
National Party housing spokeswoman Nicola Willis says the spike in the number of people staying in emergency housing in Hamilton reflects whats happening across the country.
Emergency housing now costs taxpayers $1m a day.
Willis says one of the best ways to address the extraordinary explosion in demand for emergency housing is to build more homes and quickly.
Emergency housing measures, similar to those enacted after the Canterbury earthquakes, need to be introduced urgently.
Those people living in motels are becoming ticking time bombs because unfortunately its not just individuals, its also families, Willis says.
Hamilton East MP Jamie Strange says the city could easily fill 5000 new homes.
There are thousands of mothers and fathers trying to raise their kids in motel rooms, with a drug dealer on one side, a patched gang member on the other, and that is a recipe for ongoing social dysfunction.
Hamiltons two Labour MPs Jamie Strange and Dr Gaurav Sharma say the forces which have created the current-day housing crisis have been at play for many years.
They agree more homes and state housing is needed in the city and say the Government will unveil policies this year which will address both housing demand and supply side issues.
Hamilton’s burgeoning growth, its reputation as a desirable place to live, and the influx of Kiwis back into New Zealand due to Covid-19, have all heaped pressure on the city’s housing stock, Strange says.
If 5000 houses appeared overnight in Hamilton, they would be filled just like that, with first-home buyers, [and] people needing emergency housing.
On March 30, Hamilton City Councils draft housing strategy will be presented to elected members for adoption.
An aim of the strategy is to assist the council to focus on its areas of influence in the housing market.
Hamilton Mayor Paula Southgate says efforts to resolve the citys housing crisis must be informed by compassion (file photo).
Hamilton Mayor Paula Southgate says the strategy is much needed but the elephant in the room is the cost of land in the city. Many large parcels of land are in the ownership of only a few.
Were hopeful they will release that land into the market in good time, but I personally think we need a little more competition in the market, she says.
Efforts to address Hamilton’s housing crisis must be informed by compassion.
Everybody deserves to be well-homed in some fashion, whether its renting, or whether its owning [a home]. Weve got to get people into good homes and give children a chance to grow up in good circumstances.
Charles Clarke wants to move into his own rental but says it’s challenging for people with limited finances.
For Clarke, his room at the Microtel Lodge is his nest. A place where he can heal and rebuild himself. What little he has is shared with others. Many of the lodges occupants are friends.
There is a gang presence here but as long as you dont upset anybody … youre fine. Try not to do anything wrong, and youre going to be all right.
Further along Hamiltons motel strip, Angelique Inia, 45, has returned to the Te Rapa Motor Inn to visit family.
Angelique Inia previously stayed at the Te Rapa Motor Inn while waiting for a state house. Her mother and two daughters are currently staying in emergency housing at the inn.
She stayed at the inn about 3 ½ years ago before Kinga Ora found her a state house in Waih. She’s lived there ever since and has found work at a local rest home.
Today, her mother and two daughters stay at the inn. Theyd previously lived in a private rental but moved out when the owner decided to sell it.
Inia says her family is grateful to have a place to stay but hopes they can move out soon.
Her mother’s health needs means its best if she stays in Hamilton.
I just tell everyone to stay strong. Stay strong.