BENN BATHGATE/Stuff
Rotorua’s Seventh Day Adventist School on Fenton St. The school was forced to spend $70,000 originally allocated for a new playground on security fencing after a number of incidents involving homeless people from the nearby motels.
Dozens of incidents of vandalism, drug taking, damage, verbal and physical abuse and fights has forced a Rotorua school less than 150 metres away from one of the city’s MSD motels to spend almost $100,000 on security measures.
The full extent of the issues faced by Rotorua’s Seventh Day Adventist School on Fenton St, the location of many of the tourism hub’s homeless motels, has been laid bare in a submission to Rotorua Lakes Council objecting to the use of the Emerald Spa Motor Inn as an emergency accommodation provider.
“Recently the school has been adversely affected by the behaviours of tenants seen to be from the emergency housing motels in the area directly surrounding our school,” the submission, written by the school board, said.
“There have been multiple incidents of damage on the school property and staff and students have been subjected to significant hazards, threats and verbal abuse.”
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The submission noted on some occasions school staff were able to follow the perpetrators “heading to or from the direction of motels known to host emergency housing tenants on Fenton St”.
The school has also had to spend $90,000 in the last year on fencing, cameras, security systems and replacement of property.
“There were no incidents of property damage or abuse to staff/students recorded prior to 2019.”
The school board also said a “significant” number of the incidents recorded on security cameras involved minors aged under 16.
The submission said 60 incidents have been reported since 2019, with the number “increasing year-on-year”.
“Incidents include vandalism, entering the school property for the purpose of drug taking or dealing, property damage including damaged locks and broken windows, verbal abuse, menacing and threatening behaviour, theft of school property, breaking and entering, fighting and dumping of rubbish (including household effects, personal items, faeces and dangerous items).”
The submission said 29 per cent of those incidents were not deemed serious enough to warrant reporting to police, while 85 per cent of the incidents “have had a direct detrimental effect on staff or students”.
School principal Lanea Strickland said they opposed the application from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development for the continued use of the Emerald Spa to house a maximum of 93 tenants, including children.
“The Rotorua Seventh Day Adventist School Board believes the motels for contracted emergency housing within our geographical location presents as an imminent and ongoing risk to the health and safety of students and staff,” she said.
David Hill, chairman of the resource consent hearing tasked with deciding whether a number of emergency accommodation motels can continue operating for another five years, said a decision would be made before Christmas.
