Andrew Dickens: Homelessness is a tough problem with no quick fix

Homelessness has increased, but by how much is unclear, according to a government report. 

This is the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development's latest Homelessness Insights Report drawn from data in Census 2023, and observations collected from government agencies, councils, and the general good sorts in the sector. 

The report defines homelessness as living situations where people are forced to live; without shelter, in temporary accommodation, shared accommodation with a household, or living in uninhabitable housing. 

The Opposition was hoping that the report would show the government's ditching of emergency housing was to blame. It doesn't say it's not to blame, but nor does it say it is. 

What it found was that 60 days after leaving emergency housing 37% were housed in social housing, 29% went into transitional housing, 19% received the accommodation supplement. 

That leaves 14% who may be living without shelter, but there's no way of confirming this. 

Housing Minister Chris Bishop says it's an issue he takes very seriously. 

He says it's a better outcome than the last government who spent $1.4 billion on sticking people in motels with all the consequent problems that entailed. 

Homelessness is not a new problem, but there is no doubt the problem is getting worse – blame the economy, and the pandemic hangover, and any number of factors. 

And there's no quick fix.  

But good souls are trying their best. In Rotorua there's an initiative just starting up called Adopt a Streetie. It's designed to help rough sleepers off city centre street. 

It would involve rough sleepers being matched with volunteer local hosts willing to offer free rent in exchange for their guests completing odd jobs. 

There is no knowing whether there will be enough good folk prepared to Adopt a Streetie, because it's not an easy job. The homeless are not easy people. They've not had an easy life. They have big hard personal problems. It takes a very good Good Samaritan to run the gauntlet of adopting a streetie. I commend you if you're helping and I thank you but it's gotta be tough. 

The idea is the brainchild of Love Soup, the organisation behind Rotorua’s Village of Hope. That village shelters homeless people in sleeping pods set up in secret locations, but it's struck problems with compliance issues. 

And that's just one of the problems that affect solutions – a lot of our rules don't suit people who have chosen to live outside society and its rules. 

Once upon a time I helped a friend help a bloke. She befriended him, I met him a few times. She organised some emergency housing for him in Papakura, a warm little brick and tile and one weekend she helped him move in. Bought some furniture from an op shop. 

But two weeks later he was back living rough downtown, because in Papakura he was lonely. His people were fellow rough sleepers, and he valued their company more than a warm house. 

Now this is not a tale to say that housing the homeless is useless because they want to live this way, but it does acknowledge that while they don't like living rough, it's what they know and safer than the solution. 

So the Minister and everybody says it's not good enough, and it isn't, but finding a solution is very hard indeed.  

But while the problem is hard, at least we should be able to understand it. Because that is the first step in learning how to solve it. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Kerrywood of Morning's podcast from News
Talks ADB.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
It is time once again for our annual discussion on
homelessness in New Zealand, the state of it and what
we can do about it. So new report has just
come out and it says homelessness has increased, but by
how much is unclear. This is a Ministry of Housing
and Urban Developments Homelessness Insights Report and it's drawn from

(00:34):
data and Census twenty twenty three and observations collected from
government agencies and councils and general good sorts in the sector.
So a lot of it is anecdotal. That's why a
lot of it is unclear. So this report defines homelessness
as living situations where people are forced to live without shelter,
in temporary accommodation, shared accommodation with the household or living

(00:59):
in uninhabitable housing, and of course also living under a
bridge or on a park bench. Now the Opposition has
been agitating to get this report release because they hoped
that it would show that the government's ditching of emergency
housing was to blame. Remember the motels are rotru Now
this report doesn't say it's not to blame, but does

(01:20):
it say it is. What it did find was that
sixty days after leaving emergency housing, thirty seven percent of
them were housed in social housing, twenty nine percent went
into transitional housing, and nineteen percent received the accommodation supplement,
leaving fourteen percent who may be living without shelter. But

(01:46):
there's absolutely no way of confirming this. This is the
problem with homeless people and housing living rough people is
you can't find them to ask them questions and to
measure what's up. So there may be fourteen percent of
the people who used to be at the motels and
then the emergency shelters who may now be living rough. Anyway,
Homelessness it's always been an issue in New Zealand and

(02:10):
it's been an issue for every council and every government
and the Housing Minister, Chris Bishop, was on the radio
this morning and he says it's an issue he takes
very seriously.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
We know that we have a problem with rough sleeping.
The government spends about half a billion dollars a year
on support for people in these situations that ranges from
emergency housing through to transitional We've got a product called
housing first, which puts people into a home and then
raps housing support around them and make sure they can
actually stay in the house. We've been running that since
twenty seventeen. That was launched under the Bill English government

(02:42):
continued under the last government. That program exists today and
is doing good, good work in places like Hamilton and Auckland,
for example. But you're dealing with people with often quite
complex challenges, right. Sometimes they've got mental health challenges, Sometimes
they've got addiction challenges. Sometimes they've got trauma in their past,
family violence sometimes as well. So it's important you know,

(03:05):
there's no one definition of who becomes homeless and how
there's a range of circumstances. And the question, Freddy for
government is are we making sure that the support is
as effective as possible? And to be honest, it's not.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
It's not. But you know how much we spend on
it five hundred and fifty million dollars a year, and
there's a minister already saying it's not enough. He does
say it's a better outcome than the last government. Remember
they spent one point four billion dollars on sticking people
in motels with all the consequent problems that that entailed anyway. Homelessness,

(03:37):
I mean, it's time to talk about it again. Not
a new problem, no doubt. The problem is getting worse.
Blame the economy, Blame the pandemic, hangover, Blame any number
of factors. But there is no quick fix. But good
souls are trying their best. So in Rotalua, there's an
initiative just starting up called Adopt a Streaty. It's designed

(03:57):
to help rough sleepers off city center streets, and this
involves rough sleepers being matched with volunteer local hosts willing
to offer free rent in exchange for their guests completing
our jobs. There's no knowing whether this will will there's
no knowing whether this will work. There's no knowing whether

(04:17):
there will be enough good folk prepared to adopt a
streaty because it's not an easy job. The homeless are
not easy people. They've not had an easy life. They've
got big, hard personal problems. It takes a very good,
good Samaritan to run the gauntlet of adopting a streaty.
And I commend you if you want to help, and
I thank you, but it's got to be tough. I
hope they can find enough the idea is the brainchart

(04:39):
of a group called Love Soup. They run a thing
already called Village of Hope in Rotorua. That village shelters
homeless people and sleeping pods set up in secret locations.
But that's striking problems too, compliance issues, wouldn't you know.
And that's just one of the problems that affect these solutions.

(05:00):
A lot of our rules don't suit people who have
chosen to live outside society and its rules. Once upon
a time I helped a friend help a bloke. She'd
befriended him and I met him a few times. He
was living rough down there Rta Square in downtown Auckland,
by the Bladerzou Center. She went right, we've got to

(05:23):
do something about this, and she organized some emergency housing
for him in Papakura. And she came back and told
him I've got an emergency housing. Well, yeah, okay. It
was a warm, little brick and tile and one weekend
she helped him move in, and they both went out
and bought some furniture from an up shop and he
moved into his little brick and tile and Papakura, and
wouldn't you know it, two weeks later he was back

(05:44):
living rough downtown. Why because in Papakura he was lonely.
His people were fellow rough sleepers, They were his friends.
They were the only community he had. He had no family.
His friends were living rough in downtown Auckland. He was
in Papakura, knew nobody, felt that everybody hated him, and

(06:08):
so given the answer, he turned us back on it. Now,
this is not a tale to say that housing the
homeless is useless because they want to live this way.
But it does acknowledge that while they don't like living rough,
it is what they know and they feel they feel

(06:30):
that it is safer than the solutions we offer. All right,
so the minister and everybody says it's not good enough,
and it isn't. But finding a solution we're found is
very hard. Indeed, while the problem is hard, and maybe
the solutions are hard as well, we as a community

(06:53):
need to understand it and understand the real drivers before
we start throwing money at it. We've learned that, haven't
we We are throwing money at at five hundred and
fifty million dollars and at eight worken. But if we
understand why it is, maybe we could come up with
some answers, and that is the first step in learning

(07:14):
how to solve everything.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
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