The government cannot give a deadline for phasing out emergency motel accommodation, but the Social Development Minister told Checkpoint she would reveal the results of a review and redesign by the end of the year.
A "bloody fiasco", a "failed govt experiment", and "tantamount to child abuse" - some of the descriptions of the accommodation.
Resource consent is being sought for 13 Rotorua motels to keep operating as emergency housing for another five years.
Motels were supposed to be a short-term solution, but the bill for the scheme is topping a billion dollars since Labour took office in 2017.
And some families have now lived in motels for a year or more.
Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni talks to Lisa Owen.
