Actual and reasonable costs covered for emergency housing

A client can get an Emergency Housing Grant for the actual and reasonable costs for adequate emergency housing that meets their needs.

This covers the nightly rate of the emergency accommodation.

An Emergency Housing Grant is considered last resort funding. Generally MSD should pay for the lower cost option that is adequate for the needs of the client, their partner and dependent children (if any).

Note if the client can meet the cost of emergency housing from their own resources, they are considered to have access to adequate accommodation. This means they do not have an immediate emergency housing need. In this situation, the Emergency Housing Grant will be declined.

An Emergency Housing Grant is considered last resort funding and can only be granted for an adequate emergency housing option that is a reasonable cost.

Reasonable cost is either:

• the lower cost option adequate to meet the needs of the client, their partner and dependent children (if any) or
• where MSD needs to use emergency housing to support managing availability, safety, and suitability in the region

If there is more than 1 emergency housing option that is adequate and a reasonable cost, MSD may encourage a client to use a particular supplier but cannot require the client to use it.

MSD may need to use emergency housing options to support managing availability and suitability of emergency housing in the area.

Availability means:

• using suppliers with facilities more suited to a particular housing need when there is low availability

Suitability means:

• using particular suppliers to provide emergency housing more suitable for different households e.g. a particular supplier may be used for families

 MSD staff will be advised when emergency housing availability and suitability needs to be managed.

A single client or a couple without children will generally be assisted to stay in a hostel or night shelter in the first instance.

However, there may be good reasons why a hostel is not adequate for their needs in the short term.

Good reasons may include:

• health and disability reasons for not being able to be in shared accommodation or shared flatting
• unreasonable distance from the hostel to work, or other essential services (e.g. medical services)
• there is no hostel available

Hostels will generally not be appropriate for households with children.

A night shelter may not be appropriate for a client if it does not provide a stable environment they can use to find alternative longer-term housing.

For example, the night shelter might not allow access to the building during the day. Therefore the client cannot use the night shelter to search for other adequate accommodation.

An accommodation provider would generally be considered appropriate to provide accommodation if they:

• are a commercial provider or a not-for-profit accommodation provider (including a marae) and
• are approved by the relevant authority to provide accommodation services (e.g. meets the fire safety requirements, building code requirements, local authority bylaws etc) and
• meet the requirements to become an MSD supplier