Getting New Zealanders off the streets and into homes is a top priority for the new Housing Minister.
"I don't want to be paying $100,000 a day to put Kiwis up in motels," Phil Twyford told 1 NEWS' Katie Bradford today when asked about interim shelter for families.
"We are better than that as a country."
Instead he wants to focus on "decent" transitional emergency places for homeless people to stay while waiting for permanent housing, "while we get to grips with the overall housing crisis that is causing so much pain".
"My goal is to eliminate homelessness and that's going to be one of my top priorities."
He was getting advice on why "it's been so slow for the former government to build that transitional housing that they promised a year ago to tackle the homelessness problem".
Mr Twyford said the government would stop the "sell-off" of state housing and would launch a "massive" build programme of additional state housing.
SHARE ME