Concerns or complaints about emergency housing
What happens if you have concerns or want to make a complaint about your emergency housing supplier.
You have the same rights as any person under the law, like rights as a customer, and the right not to be discriminated against.
If you have issues or concerns when staying in emergency housing:
- Talk to your emergency housing supplier first.
- Talk to us if there's no resolution.
- Make a formal complaint if you feel like things haven't changed.
You can withdraw your complaint at any time.
Issues or concerns when in emergency housing
Talk to your emergency housing supplier if you:
- feel you're being treated unfairly, or
- have concerns about the accommodation or services.
You may be able to fix this together.
If you feel the issue hasn't been sorted out in a reasonable time, talk to your case manager or youth coach. We may be able to help you discuss your concerns with the supplier.
If nothing changes or the conditions become worse, you can make a formal complaint.
Making a formal complaint
If you choose to make a formal complaint about your emergency housing supplier, we’ll investigate this for you.
You can either:
- submit your complaint onlineexternal
- call us on 0800 559 009 (you can book an appointment to come in and see us), or
- write to us at Ministry of Social Development, PO Box 1556, Wellington.
Submit your complaint online
What happens next
We'll contact you to let you know we've received your complaint and what we'll do to resolve it. We'll also contact the emergency housing supplier to discuss the complaint with them.
If your complaint is unique and complex and we need to work with others to resolve it, it may take longer. We’ll keep in touch with you while we do this.
Once the complaint is resolved we'll send you and the supplier a letter about the outcome.
Withdrawing a complaint
You can withdraw your complaint at any time. You don’t have to wait until we’ve finished investigating your complaint.
If you reach an agreement with the emergency housing supplier, you can call us on 0800 559 009 to let us know.
We’ll send you and the supplier a letter confirming the complaint has been withdrawn.