Priority One: Twelve Months In, 2100 Children Housed
Hon Chris Bishop
Minister of Housing
Associate Minister of Housing
In the first twelve months of the Government's flagship Priority One policy, nearly 1000 families with more than 2,124 children have been moved from dank emergency housing motel rooms to secure, stable homes.
'The largescale use of emergency housing was one of the biggest public policy failures in New Zealand history. Under the previous government's watch, thousands of children were consigned to grow up in cramped, dingy motel rooms at a cost to taxpayers of $1 million every day at its peak,' Housing Minister Chris Bishop says.
'The cost to taxpayers was a scandal, but the social cost for families trying to raise their kids from a motel room for months or even years on end was an absolute tragedy.
'We campaigned on introducing a Priority One category to help these kids and their families move into social homes, and getting it up and running was a key priority for us as an incoming Government.
'Priority One, which has now been in place for a year, bumps families with dependent children to the very top of the social housing waitlist if they have been in emergency housing for 12 weeks or more.
'Thanks to Priority One and the hard work of many frontline staff across multiple government agencies, thousands of children now live in a warm, dry social home instead of a crowded motel room.'
Minister Potaka said the Government had already achieved its target of reducing the number of households in Emergency Housing by 75 per cent by 2030 and now needed to maintain progress. Since November 2023 to April 2025, households in emergency housing have dropped from 3,342 to 516– that's a drop of 84.5 percent.
'And importantly, there are now significantly fewer children in emergency housing. In April 2024, there were 3,339 children in emergency housing, and a year later we're down to 519.
'The focus on supporting whānau with tamariki into better stable homes could mean a world of difference for their health, school attendance, and regular employment.
'One of the whānau we're talking about today is a family of six whose eldest child has serious health concerns needing specialist care, but who had been struggling while stuck living in emergency accommodation for six months.
'Our Priority One focus helped get this whānau into a stable Kāinga Ora home and helped enable them to get the wider support they needed.
'We will continue to improve the housing system because there are thousands of deserving people out there just like this whānau, many of them on the social housing list just waiting to take proper care and enjoy a better home.
'MSD has also improved how it tracks emergency housing outcomes. We now know where around 85 percent of those leaving emergency housing go - be it social housing, transitional housing, or a private rental.
'Of the households that exited emergency housing (excluding contracted emergency housing) during December 2024:
37 percent left emergency housing to go into social housing (4 percent through CHPs, 33 percent through Kāinga Ora)
29 percent had moved into transitional housing
19 percent were receiving the accommodation supplement for a private rental
14 percent did not access any of this housing-related assistance.'
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