Latest news with #NationalHomelessnessDataProject
Otago Daily Times
5 days ago
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Night Shelter joins urgent call to help homeless
The Dunedin Night Shelter has added its voice to a call by the Salvation Army for a co-ordinated response to the growing scale and severity of homelessness in New Zealand. This week, the Salvation Army released the results of its latest survey conducted under the National Homelessness Data Project, a collaborative initiative involving frontline housing and homelessness organisations across the country. The survey's findings showed a sharp rise in housing insecurity and distress; including that one in every 1000 people in New Zealand is without shelter, 57,000 women are experiencing homelessness and 14 in every 1000 people live in housing considered uninhabitable. Contacted by The Star , Dunedin Night Shelter manager David McKenzie said the organisation had been contributing to the data project and the conversation around it for the past year. While there was ongoing work to gather data on the situation, it was made more difficult by the lack of a national homelessness register, he said. "The housing register doesn't fully capture who is homeless, because it doesn't cover people who have been couch surfing or living in cars — those people tend to be invisible in the data." In its report, the Salvation Army had acknowledged the government's work to date around housing and its increased engagement with the issue and the sector of late. However, the impact of New Zealand's housing deficit was "an unparalleled disruption that is affecting our most vulnerable people and whānau", Salvation Army lieutenant-colonel Ian Hutson said. The report also highlighted that access to emergency housing was becoming increasingly restricted, with a 386% rise in Ministry of Social Development (MSD) rejections since August 2024. The rejections cited people had "contributed to their own homelessness". Mr McKenzie said the situation in Dunedin was somewhat different, with local MSD staff often going out of their way to help. "However, a major issue for us has been the cancellation of the planned Kāinga Ora housing builds in Dunedin. Mr McKenzie said it was important to understand that providing suitable housing for people needed to be "more than just a roof". "There is a widespread attitude out there that, if people just get a roof, everything will be OK," he said. "However, if people with complex needs are just placed into housing, without support, it is likely that the way they live and their capabilities could result in them losing that housing again. "What they need is intensive, wrap-around support — which is why collaboration is so important. "The fact that our local social organisations are so committed to working closely together is a major reason why the homelessness situation in Dunedin is not worse than it is," he said.
NZ Herald
28-07-2025
- General
- NZ Herald
Sharp rise in homelessness prompts Salvation Army call for action
The Salvation Army sees a need for a co-ordinated response to the growing scale and severity of homelessness in Aotearoa. Photo / 123 rf Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. The Salvation Army sees a need for a co-ordinated response to the growing scale and severity of homelessness in Aotearoa. Photo / 123 rf There has been a sharp rise in homelessness with one in every 1000 Kiwis currently without shelter, new national data shows. The Salvation Army is calling for a co-ordinated response to the growing scale and severity of homelessness after an increase across nearly all communities, with no area reporting a decline. The new findings are drawn from the latest survey conducted under the National Homelessness Data Project. This project is a collaborative initiative involving housing and homelessness organisations, including The Salvation Army, Community Housing Aotearoa, Housing First Auckland Backbone, Kāhui Tū Kaha, Christchurch Methodist Mission, DCM and Wellington City Mission. The group acknowledged the Government's work to date around housing and its increased engagement with the issue after the release of the Housing and Urban Development 'Homelessness Insights Report'.
