New Zealand’s motel generation caught between life in limbo and life on the street

Kristina Reid in her room in emergency accommodation at a motel in Rotorua, New Zealand. ‘It takes a toll on your family … you get judged because you can’t afford a house.’ Photograph: Alan Gibson/The Guardian

Kristina Reid is trying to make the best of a bad situation. The walls of the motel room she has called home for the past two years are plastered with photographs of her smiling daughters. Her bed is neatly made, and tins of budget beans and tomatoes are stacked in tidy rows in the small cavity above the mini-fridge.

More than anything, Reid wishes for stability; a rental close to family, somewhere she can plant a garden – a place her four daughters can call home.