While not present at Monday night’s housing protest, organised by locals Hannah Sullivan and Lindsay Waterfield — attended by about 100 people, most of whom had either no home at all, or no permanent housing — Lewers says he wasn’t thumbing his nose at the protesters, or ignoring the issue.
He tells Mountain Scene he was invited to attend on Sunday afternoon, by which time he’d locked in some much-needed time with his children.
"I know it’s a bit tough, but there are some things I have to [prioritise] and recharge my batteries."
However, he wants it known he’s fully aware of the issue, and Monday night’s protest drove home the urgency of the need to find fast solutions.
"I’ve been working away in the last two days to figure something out in the immediate."
Last week, Environment Minister David Parker approved a streamlined planning process for Te Pūtahi Ladies Mile, expected to be gazetted today, meaning council can progress a proposed zoning change for the 120 hectares to enable development of about 2400 houses.
Among other work council’s doing, it’s working with the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust to build more properties, but, Lewers says, "they’re medium- to long-term solutions".
"We’ve got this immediate need here … we’re trying to see if we can find immediate solutions.
"We’ve all got a part to play."
Lewers was having further meetings yesterday on what that may look like, and hopes to be in a position to comment more within the next week.
He says it could well involve tiny homes.
Meantime, council’s looking to re-establish a similar response for those in the greatest need as it did through Covid.
At that time, a council-led emergency operations centre was established, where multi-agency staff responded to the community’s welfare needs.
Lewers says that’s usually Ministry of Social Development’s (MSD) job, but "they’ve got such a small, or negligible footprint in Queenstown, it is usually council that has to pick that up".
There’s no emergency housing in Queenstown-Lakes and, he says, according to the government we have "zero need" for it.
That’s because no one has registered with Kāinga Ora or MSD as needing help.
"Council has a problem trying to communicate these issues because, at the moment, the reporting says there’s no need."
However, MSD Southern Regional commissioner Step Voight says there is emergency housing available in Queenstown, and 'emergency housing special needs grants' are paid to those who meet eligibility requirements, and are subject to an income and asset test.
"Queenstown is a popular tourist destination and, as a result, housing affordability and supply is strained.
"There is a major programme of work underway across government, aimed at increasing the supply of public housing and improving housing affordability and supply," Voight says.
