The Housing Minister's making a stark claim on the state of the country's emergency housing.

The Government's announced families with children living in emergency housing for more than 12 weeks, will go to the top of the social housing waitlist.  

The verification process, eligibility settings, and obligations will also be strengthened for those entering emergency housing. 

Chris Bishop told Mike Hosking he's calling it the biggest public policy failure in recent New Zealand history. 

He says six years ago there were a handful of families in motels, now there's three-thousand and it's costing a million-dollars a day. 

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