Twenty-five homeless Hawke's Bay families were forced out of emergency motel accommodation to make way for Art Deco Festival tourists over the last two years.
About 40,000 people attended this year's Art Deco festival Photo: RNZ
Some of the families who were moved had to sleep in community halls while the festival was on.
Documents released to RNZ under the Official Information Act show 10 families had to shift for festival-goers in mid-February, and 15 families were forced to do the same in 2017.
Those who were moved on last year were housed in church and community halls in Napier and Hastings, or stayed with family or at marae in Gisborne, the Ministry for Social Development said.
"The ministry worked hard to minimise the impact on its clients and worked with them to secure alternative accommodation," ministry deputy chief executive of housing Scott Gallacher said in a written statement.
"The ministry is not away of anyone that had no where to go over the Art Deco weekend."
The number of transitional houses in Napier and Hastings had increased from 29 to 146 between March and December 2017.
Despite this, and work by the ministry to book motels in advance of big events, there was no guarantee homeless families would not be turfed out in the future, Mr Gallacher said.
"Given that the demand is increasing, it's very difficult to absolutely guarantee that we may not need to think about moving families.
"All of what we are doing to increase the supply, is trying to absolutely minimise any further examples of where we are having to shift people out of motels."
The 2017 Art Deco Festival was followed the next weekend by the Matatini national kapa haka championships, creating an accomodation crisis for many homeless living in emergency motel accomodation.
Some of the 15 families who were moved that year stayed at the Salvation Army's church hall in Flaxmere.
The families were grateful for a place to stay but it was unsettling for them to be moved about, Salvation Army social services secretary Major Pam Waugh said.
"When you are vulnerable like this and you are living in crisis accomodation, it's not good to have have these upsetting times where you are out for a few days."
The Salvation Army was working closely with the ministry to place people in alternative accomodation in the first place, especially if they knew a motel would be booked out for an event during their stay, she said.
Ten homeless families had to leave their emergency motel accomodation for Art Deco weekend in February this year.
Ikaroa-Rāwhiti MP Meka Whaitiri said it was "not acceptable" that it had happened again.
"I don't want next year coming around and we're having to do this again.
"Clearly we need to do more."
Hawke's Bay was not the only region where big events leave put pressure on accomodation for the homeless.
In March, families in Whangarei were cast out of their emergency accomodation as Six60 fans flooded the city for a concert.
