Hamilton's Mayor says she's appalled and deeply concerned after reports of increased violence and intimidation from residents living in emergency housing.
There are about 1600 people living in motels used as emergency housing across Hamilton with 500 of those being children.
Residents have said violence and intimidation are on the rise and they're constantly surrounded by domestic fights, burglaries and unwanted approaches by gang members.
Hamilton Mayor Paula Southgate told AM on Wednesday she met with Waikato's top cop on Monday to discuss the issues plaguing the city.
It comes as Hamilton faces an increasing crime wave. On Tuesday morning, police officers were called to a spree of ram raids and burglaries, including at a mall and several cafes.
Multiple stores in Thames, Chartwell, central Hamilton, Hamilton East and Tamahere were hit by the thieves.
RNZ reported some of the women living in emergency housing have been threatened by gang members into prostitution.
Southgate told AM she was "utterly appalled" and "very angry" when she heard about the report.
"The allegations made are simply appalling. No woman, no children should be exposed to that kind of bullying and torment from a safe house," Southgate told fill-in host Laura Tupou.
"It's supposed to be a house where they are safe from that kind of behaviour and it's putting them at greater risk and that's simply not acceptable."
Southgate said the key to breaking the increased crime centred around emergency housing is getting residents into affordable accommodation.
"Crime is a very complex puzzle to unpick but, in this instance, it's directly related to having a concentration of people in emergency housing, in accommodation that's not actually fit for purpose.
"I mean, these are motels and they're barely retrofitted. They just walk in and use them as they were used for a motel.
"That's not the way to live, especially when you get to two or three years in that type of housing. So the critical point is to get affordable alternatives for people to house them in amongst the community where they've got an opportunity to thrive and to access the normal community facilities that everybody else has."
Southgate said there is some public housing in the works which could help ease the problems, but warned they will take time to build.
"We're working with Kāinga Ora and other housing providers across Hamilton to lift the proportion of affordable homes, however, it's going to take some time to build those.
"We've got some really large greenfield developments going on at the south and west of Hamilton… but that doesn't solve the immediate problem, which is: there just isn't enough housing around at this affordable level.
"We're doing what we can to make it easier for people to develop as quickly as possible but it's not easy."
Watch the full interview with Paula Southgate above.
