Temporary accommodation

Following the 14 November earthquake, MBIE’s Temporary Accommodation Service was activated and setup in seven business days. MSD and MCDEM helped set up the service and get the word out about the service through their information channels.

Under the National Civil Defence Emergency Management Plan Order 2015, MBIE has a responsibility to “coordinate the provision of temporary accommodation for displaced people following an emergency”.

MBIE operates pursuant to a Temporary Accommodation Coordination Contingency Plan (TACCP) which sets out how it will prepare for and respond to events. Key objectives of the TACCP include supporting individuals, households and communities to return to self-sufficiency as quickly as possible, providing a broad range of flexible temporary accommodation options, and integrating temporary accommodation assistance with related community support services and long-term recovery efforts.

Following the 14 November 2016 earthquake, MBIE set up a Temporary Accommodation Service (TAS) in accordance with the TACCP and, as of 26 October 2017, 395 requests have been received. Of these, 325 are resolved and 70 remain open.

TAS solutions so far include:

• Partnering with Hurunui District Council to establish a temporary accommodation village in Waiau (using four two-bedroom units from the Canterbury earthquake temporary accommodation village in Rāwhiti Domain, Christchurch) to support residential recovery in the area.
• Selling 16 two-bedroom houses (also from the Canterbury earthquake temporary accommodation village in Rāwhiti Domain, Christchurch) at residual value to farmers in the Marlborough, Kaikōura or Hurunui areas, who needed to stay on their land for work. These were farmers whose home or primary worker accommodation was rendered uninhabitable by the event. This is to support primary industry and rural residential recovery.
• Providing information about modular and prefab housing options available on the open market to farmers who withdrew from the Rāwhiti Domain house sales process, but who were interested in the outcome of MBIE’s Request For Information on the topic.
• Funding project management support for rural property owners in Marlborough, Kaikōura or Hurunui who are organising their own temporary accommodation solution, as a means to assist them self-resolve their need. 
• Distributing by email a communication titled ‘Your rental house is somebody’s home’ to over 1000 landlords across Hurunui, Kaikōura and Marlborough providing advice to them about making their rental homes healthier for tenants.
  Funding Hurunui and Marlborough District Councils to undertake a temporary accommodation survey of affected people in the region, to increase the reach of the service and ensure demand estimates are well informed.
  Contracting an accommodation coordinator in Kaikōura to link at-need households with temporary accommodation options (enhancing the existing Christchurch-based service) through providing a more intimate knowledge of the local property market.
• Working with Kaikōura District Council to determine the feasibility of a partnership to establish a temporary accommodation village in the township to support residential recovery in the area.
• Planning to provide an MBIE-owned self-contained temporary accommodation portacabin to customers in the Kaikōura, Hurunui, Marlborough area (outside Waiau and Kaikōura township, so as to not undermine the solutions deployed/in-train in those locations) who need somewhere to stay while their home is repaired or rebuilt.
• Working with Marlborough District Council about medium term temporary accommodation demand to establish a collective understanding about what temporary accommodation interventions are appropriate to ensure residential recovery is well supported.