Houses sit abandoned in November 2023 and have been subsequently vandalised since the floods at the start of 2023 (file image). Photo: RNZ/Nick Monro
An Auckland homeowner has asked the chief ombudsman to look into why she and some others with storm-damaged homes have been declined the government's temporary accommodation support.
Peter Boshier's office has so far received 49 complaints against government agencies related to the aftermath of storms this year but conducted investigations in secret.
It comes after dozens of people in the Auckland Stickered Residents Group wrote to new Minister of Social Development Louise Upston asking to be included in the Temporary Accommodation Assistance support.
A homeowner, who wanted to remain anonymous, said she has asked the chief ombudsman why unlivable houses which are in trusts, uninsured, or were rented are not included in the support.
"For a handful of us, we didn't meet the criteria and I've asked why, why have we not met the criteria for the Auckland flooding, which is an unprecedented event ... why have we been scratched off the list?"
She had earlier asked for official information including the policy from the Ministry of Social Development to no avail.
"I've just been asking what is the criteria, why have we not been eligible for this financial support that everyone else is on."
She said she had received a call this week from the obmudsman's office, confirming it would look into it.
In September, the former government established an assistance package for people unable to get back into their homes, providing up to $610 a week to help with the cost of renting another home.
But the package only covered displaced homeowners, leaving people with rentals or property held in trusts to fend for themselves - it also did not cover uninsured houses.
Insurance payments helped many people to cover their additional rent costs in the immediate wake of the Auckland flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle.
The homeowner who spoke to RNZ said her storm damaged property in the North Shore suburb of Beach Haven remains red stickered, with risk to life due to a slip that has compromised the foundations.
It was a rental that she had sold and was due to settle the week after January's flooding.
"I'm an older lady, I'm ready to slow down and look at retirement. This was my retirement, to supplement my retirement going forward so I actually had this place up for sale," she said.
"I had a sale going through the following week and in one night I lost my tenants, they fled, they are safe they got out of the property quickly, and I lost the sale on my property as well."
She said the rent of $550 helped to pay the mortgage on the rental.
"I'm having to find that per week now myself ... I've just been watching everything unravel for a year now," she said.
"I have considered selling the family home that I have lived in for 15 years now and moving into the red stickered property, that would make me mortgage free ... and I'd just sit down and wait for what the council categorise me with."
She said that would be a last resort.
"I don't know what else to do, short of going bankrupt," she said.
"What savings I have had, which were rather sparse, have all but gone."
The chief ombudsman's office said of the 49 complaints it has received related to extreme weather, 28 come under the Ombudsman Act, 13 are Official Information Act complaints and eight are Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act complaints.
The complaint related to eligibility criteria for the Temporary Accommodation Assistance comes under the Ombudsman Act.
The office of the ombudsman said it does not confirm what investigations are carried out but release findings if it is in the pubic's interest.
