Latest news with #CommunityCommittee
RNZ News
30-07-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
'Shame on our country': Homelessness in Auckland raised with ministers
General vision of homelessness in Auckland central city. Photo: RNZ / Luke McPake An Auckland city missioner is meeting with government officials to talk about how to respond to rising homelessness . Outreach providers in the city say it now has 809 rough sleepers -- 90 percent more than last September. Helen Robinson said that's a crisis and she met with both the Minister and the Associate Minister for Housing recently. "The reality that we have, in our census, just under 113,000 people who are homeless is absolutely a crisis," she said. "This is a moral shame on our country and I know that there are many New Zealanders who long for a reality where everybody has a home and everybody has enough support." Robinson said in recent weeks, she has had meetings with both the Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Minister of Housing Tama Potaka. "I requested a meeting to talk about the reality of street homelessness, the growth of that happening here in Auckland, the demand that was placing on services and the mission." Robinson said she met with Tama Potaka and expressed concern about the "direct relationship between emergency housing policies being tightened in September of last year and then a growth in street homelessness". She said two weeks ago, Chris Bishop contacted her. "He simply said to me, please tell me directly Helen, what is the reality that you're seeing in central city Auckland? So I took the opportunity," she said. "Since then we have had a face to face meeting with them with other a small group of other providers here in Auckland and also we are now working with both MSD [Ministry of Social Development] and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to actually see what is it that we can do in response to two particular areas." Associate Minister for Housing (Social Housing) Minister Tama Potaka. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii Robinson said today she is meeting with officials from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to continue those talks. "I am hopeful and look forward to a reality very soon where we can see a sig change at that em h end of homelessness here in New Zealand." She is asking for two changes. "A change to the emergency housing policy so that genuinely the genuine needs of people are met. And secondly, we're asking to contract with organisations like the mission so that we can provide that immediate access to shelter and appropriate support services for everybody that needs it." On Tuesday, Auckland Council's Community Committee voted to write to the government, asking officials to work with frontline agencies and make sure they are using up-to-date data when dealing with the issue. Community Committee chairperson, councillor Angela Dalton, told Checkpoint on Tuesday recent government policy changes had "made it harder for people to access emergency housing", as had declining people deemed to have contributed to their own lack of accommodation. "I think there's some policies that have been changed that show a lack of compassion because they are making assumptions that people are not trying hard enough." Talking to Morning Report on Wednesday, Associate Minister for Housing Tama Potaka said there were "a lot of contributing factors and causes" behind the rise in homelessness. "There's a number of things that this government is doing, whether or not it's the build program, making sure we build another 500 social homes in Auckland, Māori housing, Kainga Ora, 1500 new homes with chips, resetting the housing system. You would have heard us talking about granny flats and enabling those… and I look forward to the council actually supporting those actions." Potaka said he had "directed officials to identify some potential target interventions and understand the utilisation rates across transitional housing first, and other support programmes, to make sure we're getting the right utilisation of programmes". "We're also liaising with a lot of those providers like Strive, Auckland City Mission…and a whole range of others in Auckland," Potaka said. "No one I know wants to see Kiwis living without shelter, and we're very concerned with the level of rough sleeping and people in cars, and in tents and other things, including in Auckland."
RNZ News
29-07-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Auckland homelessness spike: Who, or what, is to blame?
Outreach providers say there's been a 90 percent increase in homelessness in Auckland since September last year. Photo: RNZ / Luke McPake Auckland councillors are calling on the government to take action over the growing homelessness problem in the city. Outreach providers say there has been a 90 percent increase in homelessness in Auckland since September last year, after the government tightened up emergency housing eligibility rules . The council's Community Committee wants the government to work with frontline agencies and make sure they are using up-to-date data when dealing with the issue. "No one I know wants to see Kiwis living without shelter, and we're very concerned with the level of rough sleeping and people in cars, and in tents and other things, including in Auckland," Associate Minister for Housing Tama Potaka told Morning Report on Wednesday. Community Committee chair, Councillor Angela Dalton, told Checkpoint on Tuesday recent government policy changes had "made it harder for people to access emergency housing", as had declining people deemed to have contributed to their own lack of accommodation. "I think there's some policies that have been changed that show a lack of compassion because they are making assumptions that people are not trying hard enough." Potaka said there were "a lot of contributing factors and causes" behind the rise in homelessness. "There's a number of things that this government is doing, whether or not it's the build program, making sure we build another 500 social homes in Auckland, Māori housing, Kainga Ora, 1500 new homes with chips, resetting the housing system. You would have heard us talking about granny flats and enabling those… and I look forward to the council actually supporting those actions." Potaka said he had "directed officials to identify some potential target interventions and understand the utilisation rates across transitional housing first, and other support programmes, to make sure we're getting the right utilisation of programmes. "We're also liaising with a lot of those providers like Strive, Auckland City Mission… and a whole range of others in Auckland." He said there was "different data", and "a bit of ambiguity" around how a recent Salvation Army report came to the conclusion there had been a 386 percent rise in people denied help because they had contributed to their own homelessness . "It's very hard to attribute one particular cause… You can't attribute [the rise] just to a policy change. There's a range of causes, and one of the biggest ones, of course, is disconnection with families and with whanau - and that's one of the biggest contributors to people sleeping rough." Ministry of Social Development (MSD) said in June 36 percent of applications for emergency housing were declined, mostly often "because their need can be met in another way", according to group general manager enablement Karen Hocking. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Of those declined emergency housing because it was deemed they had contributed to their own homelessness, Potaka said two-thirds still got some form of assistance. "Overall, the vast majority of people, between 85 percent and 90 percent who apply for emergency housing, get some sort of support for emergency housing." He would not detail what actions could be considered as contributing to one's own homelessness. "There could be a range of circumstances. I'm not going to go into the various types of circumstances that can emerge, but sometimes people do that… "There's a responsibility framework that goes with emergency housing. People who have a genuine need for short-term temporary accommodation in most big towns and cities in New Zealand, there is support, but there is a responsibility framework that goes with it. "For example, you have to undertake some training when you're in emergency housing around budgeting and other things, or getting ready to rent. There's a whole bunch of programmes within the emergency housing framework that are in place to support people to transition out and get to a place which they can stay in a more enduring manner than emergency housing - a catastrophe we all know about." MSD's Hocking gave some examples, however. "We have some concerns that the data used by the National Homelessness Data Project does not adequately reflect the support we are providing New Zealanders," she added. Potaka said rather than just government, it was "actually a whole lot of society that's responsible" for solving the issue, including "councils, whanau, iwi Māori, charitable organisations". "We've got a huge build programme that's in place right now around community housing providers, and a range of others who are actually building homes that hopefully will be suitable for those that have got serious housing deprivation - whether or not that's on the street or people on the social housing waitlist, which, by the way, has come down about 5000 families since we got into administration." Opposition parties have blamed the rise on homelessness on the government's policies . Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
29-07-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Homeless situation in Auckland now at 'crisis' point
More than 800 rough sleepers are now being helped in Auckland. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Finn Blackwell The government needs to do more to combat homelessness, says an Auckland council committee, after outreach teams recorded a 90 percent increase in people sleeping rough since September. Outreach providers in the city say they are now dealing with 809 rough sleepers. The Community Committee voted this afternoon to write to the government, asking it to engage with frontline agencies to understand and respond to the drivers for all homeless people. This included using data provided by sector organisations working on the ground, alongside the 2023 census data. Committee chair and councillor Angela Dalton told Checkpoint that homelessness has reached crisis point in the city and is likely still rising. "It is a crisis in Auckland and if it has risen by 90 from September till May 2025, we're in July, I doubt very much those numbers would have decreased, they would have increased," Dalton said. "We need a shift in policy change, we need understanding and a bit of compassion would help, to understand why our people are homeless and how we can provide them with a roof over their heads." Dalton said the policy changes that made it harder for people to access emergency housing, and declining those that have contributed to their lack of housing, has been problematic. "I think there's some policies that have been changed that shows a lack of compassion because they are making assumptions that people are not trying hard enough." A government report released last week found 14 percent of people leaving emergency housing may be homeless. Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson talked to the committee, as a representative of the Coalition to End Women's Homelessness. The coalition's research late last year found 46 percent of homeless women lived in Auckland. "The Auckland City Mission is asking for the council to do everything in its power to communicate to government the reality of homelessness that we see here in the central city Auckland and to advocate for a system that genuinely responds to those people's needs." Robinson said that included house houses and appropriate support. "There is a real call to change the current emergency housing policies and then to work with organisations like the mission so we can provide the services people need when they truly are at that point of homelessness." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
29-07-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Auckland council tells government to do more about homelessness
An Auckland council committee's calling on the government to do more to combat homelessness. A government report released last week found homelessness has increased but it's unclear by how much. The Community Committee's voted this afternoon to write to the government asking it to engage with frontline agencies to understand and respond to the drivers for all homeless people. Auckland Councillor and chair of the council's community committee Angela Dalton spoke to Lisa Owen. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
RNZ News
28-07-2025
- RNZ News
Disproportionately high rate of homeless women in NZ
People working with Auckland's homeless are warning that there is a disproportionately high rate of women without shelter in New Zealand, concentrated in Auckland. Tomorrow, Auckland Council's Community Committee will discuss the region's homelessness crisis and a report showing the number of homeless people rose to 809 in May this year, a 90% increase since last September. Amy Williams reports. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
