IN-CONFIDENCE
10 May 2024
Marcus
[FYI request #26441 email]
Tēnā koe Marcus
Official Information Act Request
Thank you for your email of 15 April 2024, requesting information about
Gamma Hotel. I have considered your request under the Official Information
Act 1982 (the Act). Please find my decision on each part of your request set
out separately below.
The Ministry does not contract motels to provide emergency housing in New
Zealand. Emergency Housing Special Needs Grants are intended as a one-off
grant. They are not able to be paid in advance of the need, or beyond what an
individual is entitled to at the time of application. Given the high level of need
many clients experience, subsequent grants are applied for in succession, and
these are paid for up to 21 days at a time.
Our role at MSD is to ensure people with no other housing options are
supported into emergency accommodation, usually motels. We expect our
clients to receive same quality of service as any other paying guest staying at
the motel. Likewise, we expect our clients to respect the rules that any of those
moteliers have in place to ensure equal consideration to other guests.
1. Gamma Hotel appears to be a trading name. What is the underlying
business name and/or NZBN of the supplier?
The supplier company name is Steelpoint Hotel Limited. You can look up their
New Zealand Business Number her
e: https://www.nzbn.govt.nz/
2. When did Gamma Hotel register as an emergency housing supplier with
the Ministry?
The first month that Gamma Hotel received an Emergency Housing Special
Needs Grant (EHSNG) was March 2022.
The Aurora Centre, 56 The Terrace, PO Box 1556, Wellington
– Telephone 04-916 3300 – Facsimile 04-918 0099
IN-CONFIDENCE
3. For the past three financial years, how much has been paid to Gamma
Hotel by the Ministry? I understand this will not be direct nit indirect by
way of the EH SNG model.
Please find the below
Appendix containing
Table One: The number of
Emergency Housing Special Needs Grants (EHSNGs) and the amount granted
to Gamma Hotel during the period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2024, by financial
year.
You will note some data has been replaced with an ‘S’. This information is
refused under section 9(2)(a) of the Act in order to protect the privacy of
natural persons. The need to protect the privacy of these individuals outweighs
any public interest in this information.
4. Have any restrictions or penalties been placed on Gamma Hotel by the
Ministry at any time?
5. Have any complaints been submitted to the Ministry at any point in
regards to Gamma Hotel? Either directly to the Ministry or via Auckland
Council?
6. In general, is there anything you might consider notable about the
Ministry’s relationship with Gamma Hotel compared to any other
providers?
No restrictions or penalties have been placed on Gamma Hotel. We are also
not aware of any complaints being escalated to the region or via Auckland
Council. There may, however, be a record of complaints on individual case
files. To locate these would require Ministry staff to manually review the files
of any client who has stayed at Gamma Hotel, which would be a substantial
number of files. As such, this request is refused under section 18(f) of the Act.
The greater public interest is in the effective and efficient administration of the
public service.
I have considered whether the Ministry would be able to respond to your
request given extra time, or the ability to charge for the information requested.
I have concluded that, in either case, the Ministry’s ability to undertake its
work would still be prejudice.
There is nothing of note to mention about the Ministry’s relationship with
Gamma Hotel. As an emergency housing opted in supplier, they are utilised as
all emergency housing suppliers are, for emergency housing purposes when a
client has a housing need.
7. What is, roughly, the average amount of time that emergency residents
stay with Gamma Hotel before being able to transition to a more
permanent residence?
Page 2 of 5
IN-CONFIDENCE
8. What is the longest amount of time that any single resident has been
with Gamma Hotel before being able to transition to a more permanent
residence? This may be historical or ongoing. If ongoing, the running
length up to the point that this OIA is actioned is fine.
I am unable to provide you with this information as it is held in notes on
individual case files. In order to provide you with this information, Ministry staff
would have to manually review a substantial number of files. As such, I refuse
your request under section 18(f) of the Act. The greater public interest is in
the effective and efficient administration of the public service.
I have considered whether the Ministry would be able to respond to your
request given extra time, or the ability to charge for the information requested.
I have concluded that, in either case, the Ministry’s ability to undertake its
work would still be prejudiced.
9. Is the Ministry aware of any relationship between Gamma Hotel and the
Anglesea Motel and Conference Centre? (There probably isn’t, I’m just
throwing it in as they coincidentally use the same website template is
all)
The Ministry is not aware of any relationship between the above-named
entities.
10. For motels/hotels acting as emergency housing providers, are non-
emergency guests entitled to any up front awareness of emergency
housing arrangements?
a. I would assume emergency guests have an overriding right to
privacy in this case but would you be able to speak to this point
and/or cite any relevant legislation either way?
In August 2023 the Ministry introduced voluntary supplier standards. The
intent of the standards is to ensure a consistent and reasonable level of service
across emergency housing. They set out the Ministry overarching expectations
of emergency housing suppliers.
The Ministry expects clients to be treated like other paying guests and receive
the level of service paid for.
11. What, if any, official avenues exist for third parties providing feedback
about emergency housing providers to the Ministry?
a. From a previous OIA response, it sounds like the Regional
Housing team are able to liaise with moteliers on quality and
service. If the above is accurate, what would be the intended
route to surface information to that team?
Page 3 of 5
IN-CONFIDENCE
Anyone can make a complaint to the Ministry. You can find all the possible
avenues to make a complaint on our website, here:
www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/contact-
us/complaints/index.html#Howtomakeacomplaint1
The Ministry will investigate complaints. The supplier is contacted to discuss
the complaint before any further action is taken. The Ministry can decline to
pay an EHSNG for a client to stay with a supplier that isn’t adequate to meet
their needs and would suggest that a client stay with a supplier that is
adequate.
The Ministry’s role is to grant EHSNGs to clients for the cost of emergency
housing. The contractual relationship is between the client receiving the
EHSNG and the emergency housing supplier. Due to the Ministry not being a
party to the contract, we cannot require any given supplier to opt into the
voluntary supplier standards.
I will be publishing this decision letter, with your personal details removed, on
the Ministry’s website in due course.
If you wish to discuss this response with us, please feel free to contact
[MSD request email].
If you are not satisfied with my decision on your request regarding Gamma
Hotel, you have the right to seek an investigation and review by the
Ombudsman. Information about how to make a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or 0800 802 602.
Ngā mihi nui
pp.
Magnus O’Neill
General Manager
Ministerial and Executive Services
Page 4 of 5
IN-CONFIDENCE
Appendix
Table One: The number of Emergency Housing Special Needs Grants (EHSNGs) and the amount granted
to Gamma Hotel during the period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2024, by financial year.
Financial Year
Gamma Hotel
Grants
Amount Granted
1 April 2021 - 31 March 2022
S
$1,540.00
1 April 2022 - 31 March 2023
24
$54,530.00
1 April 2023 - 31 March 2024
567
$1,667,186.13
Total
591
$1,723,256.13
Notes:
• The financial year used for this data is 1 April to 31 March.
• Grants are not the same as clients. A client can have more than one grant in a period.
• The amount granted may not be the same as the amount spent.
• To protect confidentiality the Ministry uses processes to make it difficult to identify an individual person or
entity from published data.
• These data tables have had random rounding to base three applied to all cell counts in the table,
• The impact of applying random rounding is that columns and rows may not add exactly to the given column or
row totals.
• The published counts will never differ by more than two counts.
• In certain circumstances, low numbers may potentially lead to individuals being identified.
• Due to these privacy concerns, numbers for some categories of clients have been suppressed. Suppressed
numbers have been replaced by an ‘S’.
The Aurora Centre, 56 The Terrace, PO Box 1556, Wellington
– Telephone 04-916 3300 – Facsimile 04-918 0099
Document Outline
