A block of flats on the corner of Gillies Ave and Epsom Ave hit by by flooding twice in one week. Photo: RNZ
An Auckland resident sleeping on a camp chair since her home flooded says she has not seen a cent from the council's Emergency Relief Fund.
The Epsom woman's first floor unit was inundated during the 27 January floods, it then flooded a week later.
It was then targeted by thieves.
"We were affected a lot, our whole ground floor flooded, furniture, paper material, books, bedding, our car, all gone. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could save," she said.
Since then, her living room has become her bedroom.
"I'm sleeping in my living room right now, in a camping chair that lays back because we can't really afford another bed at the moment and we are scared that if we do buy one, it might get flooded again."
In early February, she applied for the council's Emergency Relief Fund.
"They [Auckland Council] specified what they would fund, so I looked at it and bedding was one of the things that were in the list, so I thought I should apply for it because mattresses and bedding are expensive to replace."
She said she received an automatic respond from the council acknowledging her application.
"In a separate email two weeks later, they sent me a message saying it might take while until my application was processed," she said.
"I haven't seen a cent of it yet."
But the delay did not come as a surprise for her.
"They still haven't fixed the draining problem in our street, nor are they really helpful with the trash situation unless you call them many times," she said.
"I don't expect to get any money for another year at least."
Payment within 10 days once approved - Auckland Council
Since the fund became available, Auckland Council has received 2539 applications and about $1 million had been paid out.
Auckland Council governance and CCO (council-controlled organisations) partnerships executive officer Anna Bray said high-priority cases should only take two weeks.
"Once it's assessed and approved, we aim to have the payments done in about seven to 10 days."
High-priority cases were situations where the items lost in the flooding or cyclone were necessary for getting families back on their feet, Bray said.
"It seems to be bedding, food, home appliances, and furniture which are the things being asked for the most and what we're considering to be the highest priority applications."
If it was not for donations, the fund would be close to running out of money, Bray said.
"We've got around $2.7 million in the fund at present, just over half of that is from central government and council. The remainder is from the generous corporate business, organisations and public," she said.
Another way to access support was through the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) Civil Defence payments.
Just in the Auckland region, MSD had issued $17.4m in payments to 31,032 people affected by the January floods and $8.2m to 16,125 people affected by Cyclone Gabrielle.
The ministry said so far, almost 110,000 people around the country had received the Civil Defence payments after the weather events, a total of nearly $63m.
