Wheelchair user stuck in motel for three years waiting for accessible home

Shane Emeny has been living in a 4.5m by 8m motel room for the past three years. (File image) Photo: 123RF

A disabled man who has been in emergency housing for three years, waiting for a wheelchair-friendly state home, says authorities have "dropped the ball".

New Plymouth's Shane Emeny became a paraplegic three-and-a-half years ago after falling from a five-metre concrete ledge and severing his spinal cord.

He has been staying in a modified emergency housing motel room since.

However, he said it was difficult to have his 10-year-old son Liam to stay in the cramped studio space and to fit the gear he needed, like his standing frame.

When Liam came to stay, "he has no space for himself", and they had to share the bed, Emeny said.

On Thursday morning, Emeny woke up at 2.30am after having a bowel accident.

"My son was in the bed with me. It's not an idea thing, is it - it's not great for his health, for his sleep, and me as a father, I want to provide the best I can for him, and I can't.

"We make the most of it - I'm doing amazing in my wheelchair and that, but life's on hold. You can't have your life on hold."

Emeny said there was virtually no suitable accommodation for people with disabilities, with landlords unwilling to make modifications to their homes.

He accepted a house offered by Kāinga Ora eight months ago, but was still waiting for it to be made accessible through ACC.

He said he called Kāinga Ora from Burwood Spinal Unit years ago, just two weeks after the accident that left him paralysed, to tell officials he would eventually need an accessible home.

The person on the phone laughed and said it would be years before one was available, he said.

He accepted the home at the start of the year, but when he called Kāinga Ora in September to check on the progress of the modifications, "they didn't even have me on their books".

"Between the Ministry of Social Development and them, they've ... dropped the ball," Emeny said.

"It's our right that we should be looked after, and they're the ones who are paid to do the job - go out and do the job."

Kāinga Ora is waiting for ACC to fund modifications so that Emeny can move into a home. (File image) Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon

In a statement, a Kāinga Ora spokesperson said it had been "difficult to find a flat section with easy wheelchair access" for Emeny.

It was now waiting on ACC to fund the required modifications.

ACC said it was seeking tenders to carry out the work, "hopefully in the next few months".

Mike Potter, the chief executive of Auckland-based service Disability Connect, said the need for accessible housing was rising due to New Zealand's ageing population.

However, "there's just no supply".

Only two percent of New Zealand homes were built to a standard that wheelchair users could visit, let alone live in, he said.

"We simply don't have the right Building Code" - it was focussed on durability, rather than accessibility, he said.

Potter said Kāinga Ora needed to make strides to meet its goal of making 15 percent of its housing stock accessible - for example, by selling sloped sections to buy flat ones.

But Kainga Ora said in a statement: "20 percent of the 4864 public and supported homes that Kāinga Ora delivered in the 2023/24 financial year were built to Full Universal Design standard - well above our 15 percent target.

"Universal design features have also been incorporated into Kāinga Ora's standard dwellings for the past 10 years, with around 70 percent of FUD indicators included in its standard home designs."

But Potter said for now, Emeny was in limbo.

"There's no dignity there but there's also no community - there's isolation.

"At the moment he's going nowhere and he's not being able to progress his life to have a better life, and a better life for his son."