High number of homeless Aucklanders staying off streets after being given homes

Wednesday, 4 July 2018

Housing First Auckland project manager Fiona Hamilton, left, said 83 per cent housed through Housing First had 'sustained their tenancies'.

Eighty-three per cent of homeless Aucklanders taken off the streets by a multimillion-dollar housing scheme have kept a roof over their head.

The numbers come two weeks after Auckland Mayor Phil Goff's concession that authorities have dropped the ball on solving the region's ballooning homelessness problem.

The 2013 census indicated there were 771 homeless in the region, while an Auckland City Mission study estimated 179 rough sleepers within three kilometres of the Sky Tower. But Goff says other estimates suggest 26,000 Aucklanders may fit the 'widest definition' of homelessness.

Housing First project manager Fiona Hamilton on Tuesday said 245 adults had been placed in permanent homes by the end of May.

* Goff says ball dropped on solving ballooning chronic homelessness problem

* Housing First officially launched in Auckland

By the end of May, Housing First had taken 443 homeless adults and children off Auckland's streets.

* Housing First Auckland gets $3.7m to tackle chronic homelessless**

An additional 198 children had been housed through the $4.7 million scheme, bringing the total to 443. Hamilton said the scheme was currently helping another 119 adults get a permanent home.

Canadian psychologist Dr Sam Tsemberis founded Housing First back in 1992.

'A provisional estimate in April indicates that around 83 per cent of the people who were housed by the collective over the course of the first year have sustained their tenancies,' she said.

'We will be doing a more detailed analysis of tenancy sustainment figures over the next few months. It's not uncommon for someone receiving support from Housing First to lose their first tenancy.

'Providers continue to work with people to find another home and use experiences from the first tenancy as a learning experience.'

Most of the adults housed were from West Auckland – 125 from the area now had a roof over their head.

A further 48 were from South Auckland, while 44 previously called Auckland's CBD streets home and another 22 lived rough in the city's central suburbs. Six who had been housed were from the North Shore.

Housing First had intended to use both state houses and private dwellings to house the homeless.

But, more than a year later, the scheme was overwhelmingly using private residences – Hamilton said three quarters of the houses provided came from the private rental market.

'In many cases, these privately-owned properties have been leased to a community housing provider in the Housing First collective,' she said.

'Housing First providers try to locate properties based on the needs and preferences of the people they support, as choice and self-determination are core Housing First principles.'

Last month, while announcing Auckland would hold the region's first ratepayer-funded homelessness count, Goff said 'not enough has been done' to understand and try and solve the problem.

Officials have little data on the size and nature of what Goff called a 'chronic homelessness' problem.

'Yes, we have to do a lot more, yes … a survey like this would've been useful five years ago, so we had a benchmark to say 'well how have things changed between then and now?',' he said at the time.

'The best time time to start something that's been needed in the past was yesterday. The second best time is today.'

The Housing First collective, formed in March 2017, included Auckland City Mission, Lifewise in central Auckland, central and West Auckland's Kāhui Tū Kaha, LinkPeople in South Auckland and VisionWest in West Auckland.

WHAT IS HOUSING FIRST?

Housing First was created by Canadian community psychologist Dr Sam Tsemberis in 1992.

In a nutshell, it was based on the idea that homeless should be housed before drug addictions and mental health problems were addressed.

These issues were traditionally resolved before housing homeless people.

The first aim of Auckland's Housing First scheme was to bring 472 homeless adults and families off the street in two years. In Auckland, the aim was to end 'chronic' homelessness, making it rare, brief and non-recurring.

Housing First had worked overseas – it led to a 72 per cent drop in chronic homelessness in Utah, according to the Utah Housing and Community Development Comprehensive Report on Homelessness 2014.

The Government was paying $3.7m for the Auckland scheme, while Auckland Council put up $1m.