Photo: Louise Ternouth
Tensions were high at a fiery community meeting on Tuesday night in West Auckland as hundreds of homes are still uninhabitable months after the city's anniversary weekend floods.
It was standing room only at the Rānui community centre as residents clashed with council representatives who tried to assure them central government was to blame for the delays.
Six months on from the flooding, some of those present were having absolutely none of it.
Emotions were running high as one man vented his frustrations during the meeting.
"All I've heard tonight is bureaucratic bulls*** from Auckland City Council, process, process and bulls*** about process, all I heard was this is an unprecedented event bulls***."
About 100 people gathered for an update on the categorisation process and voluntary buyouts for their flood damaged properties.
Group recovery manager Matt Tucker tried to explain what a huge task it was.
"Auckland's facing something there like it's never faced before in terms of the number of homes that have been affected, we think we're dealing with something between 7[000] to 10,000 homes across Auckland."
Of those homes, Tucker said about 5000 would need to be individually assessed by geotechnical engineers, who were in short supply.
The categorisation process details were still being ironed out in negotiations between central government and flood-affected regions around the motu, he said.
Photo: RNZ Marika Khabazi
The council estimated about 700 homes in Auckland would end up being designated as category three, but without clear details, buyouts were still a while away.
"So speaking really frankly with you, even if I had multiple millions of dollars tomorrow, I'm not in a position to start identifying and buying category three homes tomorrow."
Residents like Isma, whose home was badly damaged, said they needed help now.
"Please don't refer me back to the government, this is on your website where it says that details of categorisations and the proper list of buyouts should be done by June 2023, June has been. I've been out of my house for six months, with two young kids."
She said that as the months dragged on so did the emotional toll.
"The mental health of me, my kids, my family's been living in limbo, it's not OK."
One man blamed the council for being unprepared for the floods and failing to take care of the city's waterways.
"You have failed to maintain streams, you are covering your arses to keep your $100,000-a-year jobs, sack the bloody lot of you, I'm bloody close to putting my money where my mouth is and suing the shit out of council for failing to plan."
At the meeting there was a mixture of residents still living in their properties despite flood damage, those living with family or friends and others like Keri Skelling, who was still trying to find a suitable rental.
Her family of four plus a cat and dog had not been able to live at their property on Urlich Drive since the day they fled back in January.
"We've just moved out of a house we've been living with 14 people and now we're currently I mean, my husband and I have one cabin and my two kids, my son and my daughter are living in another cabin."
They were struggling to pay their mortgage and rent, Skelling said, and navigating the government's temporary accommodation service had been a nightmare.
"The emergency people [are] ringing us every week going, oh, so what are you looking for, ok I'll pass you on to the next person and someone will ring you back and then I'll get the same phone call... and we've had that over and over and over again, then finally one week it just stopped."
Tucker said the council was hoping to finalise funding arrangement's with the government in the next few weeks, with offers likely to be made on properties towards the end of October.
