Behind the scenes of Auckland's Homeless Count

Tuesday, 18 September 2018

Volunteers gather at Eden Park for a safety briefing ahead of Auckland's first homeless census.

What you need to remember tonight, says Wilf Holt to a sea of people in orange hi-vis jackets, is that 'you are visiting people in their bedrooms'.

So just imagine, he says, if someone climbed in your bedroom window and woke you up with a flashlight in your face. That's what it could feel like for the people you're surveying tonight. So remember to proceed always with respect and dignity.

It's just after 8pm on Monday night. Holt is pacing in front of a PowerPoint in a conference room at Eden Park, prepping a couple of hundred volunteers who have chosen to spend their Monday night traipsing around Auckland in groups of three, counting and interviewing all the homeless people they can find in the three hours from 9.30pm to 12.30am.

Volunteers look for their team-mates at Eden Park before setting out to join the three-hour Auckland Homeless Count.

In six other hubs around the city similar scenes are unfolding: hundreds of volunteers are in the final stages of preparation for Ira Mata, Ira Tangata / Auckland's Homeless Count: the largest 'point in time' homelessness survey ever conducted in New Zealand. They've each downloaded a smartphone app that will walk them through the survey's questions and push all the data into the cloud; they've signed up to help, and now they're getting the final pep talk and warnings.

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Holt has been working with the homeless at Auckland City Mission for a couple of decades. He's done similar, though much smaller, surveys in the city centre, and he doesn't beat about the bush.

Volunteers are sternly instructed not to take photos of the homeless they meet; not to boast on Facebook about what they're up – at least until it's all over; not to talk to media unless it's been cleared from the top. And he's equally clear in his warnings about safety: stick with your group members; if things look dodgy trust your instincts. If there's a serious threat get out of there and dial 111.

There's an excited buzz in the room, but everyone's pretty attentive as Holt works through a slide of tips for actually identifying a rough sleeper.

Errors can be made, says Holt.

Volunteers gathering at Eden Park, one of seven hubs for Monday night's Auckland Homeless Count

'Not everyone who looks like a streetie is a streetie. There are a few streeties out there tonight who are better dressed than you lot!'

He has a tip for ID-ing cars containing rough sleepers: 'the windows fog up'.

Even then don't jump to conclusions. When you tap on a misted-up window, 'you may discover you've just found a couple of German tourists. That's OK. Don't count them. Just say 'auf Wiedersehen', and move on.'

Earlier that evening, as volunteers arrive en masse at Eden Park, it's controlled chaos. Team leaders stand in a huge row, each holding a sign with their two team-mates' names. You could mistake them for airport taxi drivers, if it weren't for the look of hope and optimism in their eyes.

The team leaders have all had previous NGO or social service experience and have also completed a two-hour training session before tonight.

Father-figure to New Lynn's lost and drug-addicted, Andrew, has been homeless for more than a decade. He talked to reporter Amanda Saxton earlier this month.

Rohan MacMahon, 48, is a management consultant, but in 2015 he set up the Auckland Street Choir, half of whose members have personal experience of sleeping rough. He'd noticed that homelessness seemed to be on the rise in his city and he wanted to do something useful.

Much like tonight. The count 'feels really organised', says MacMahon. He's got the map already of the area his team will hit at 9.30.

Laura Kilpatrick, 37, spots her name on MacMahon's sign and comes over. She's a primary school teacher, here tonight because some friends said they were volunteering, and it seemed a worthwhile thing to do. 'I have no idea what I'll encounter.'

Or perhaps she does. She says she's from Onehunga.

Homeless, and sleeping on the streets in Manurewa.

'That's where we're going!' says MacMahon, and pulls out his map: DressSmart. Countdown. The Mini Golf. Jellicoe Public Park.

The pair lean in, intently discussing where the homeless people might be in Onehunga.

The homeless count was announced by Auckland mayor Phil Goff in June. The results will be published on October 10, with more detailed analysis expected by year's end.

Some homelessness statistics do already exist. Figures from the 2013 general census suggested there were 771 homeless people in the Auckland region, and a 2016 Auckland City Mission count of rough sleepers within 3km of Sky Tower found 177, plus another 51 in emergency accommodation or hospital. But this 'point in time count' is expected to yield the most accurate data yet on the true scale of the problem across the entire region. Volunteers are fanning out from Wellsford in the north to Waiuku in the south, from Piha to the west and the Hunua range to the east.

There is also a much broader definition of homelessness, 'severe housing deprivation', which includes not only those sleeping rough or in cars, but also those in emergency housing, couchsurfing or living in a garages. According to the council, as many as 23,400 people in greater Auckland fit that definition and the figure is rising.

Since the census was first announced, Stuff's reporters and visual journalists have taken to the streets many times, to hear the stories of some of the folk who will be counted tonight.

The stories they've told have been hugely diverse: from the pregnant woman sleeping in a doorway in Manurewa, to the semi-employed truck driver who sleeps on the steps of the Domain Grandstand in Parnell, to an entire community of rough-sleepers who share a spot under a bridge in New Lynn. Each has a unique history. Some are deeply distressed to be without a home; some claim it isn't all that bad. 'Like camping really. You just sleep outside,' said one man.

Organisers of the count had given permission for media to tag along with the volunteer groups on Monday night, but the offer is retracted at the last minute due to fears about the vulnerability of those being counted. Sometimes it feels like it's worth kicking and screaming for the right to point microphones and take photos but this doesn't feel like one of those times, so tonight we'll focus on the counters, not the counted.

Auckland City Mission Chris Farrelly CEO says a few words from the stage. This census, he says, 'is an amazing thing.

'Look around the room, and get a sense of the people in the room who are here in a spirit of generosity.'

The Auckland Homeless Count is not just some academic exercise about data and numbers, says Farrelly. It's actually a community deciding 'to take a step forward towards ending homelessness'.

Tonight, says Farrelly, 'you're going to encounter some very special people. Some of the people you meet tonight have been very traumatised, very wounded, very very vulnerable. It would be fair to say that many people in the community tonight are very nervous about this count.

'We have assured them that the people who are going out tonight are going out with incredible sensitivity, and heart, and respect - and I want to acknowledge you for that.'

The briefing's over. Everyone's got the app on their phone, an orange vest on their back; an Ira Mata, Ira Tangata beanie on their head, and a wee paper-bag snack to get them through the evening: an apple, a banana, a biscuit, a muesli bar and a packet of crisps.

Rohan MacMahon's third team-member didn't show, but he and Kilpatrick managed to recruit Aoife Maloney, a 28-year-old Irishwoman who's in New Zealand on a working holiday visa. She has a job at Auckland City Hospital, and does a day each week volunteering for elderly folk, which was where she heard about the homeless count.

She lives in Royal Oak, and hasn't actually seen any homeless people in New Zealand yet, but then again she's only been here 12 weeks. She's come to help at the count 'because I want to give something back to the people in New Zealand'. She doesn't quite know what to expect. She hopes the evening will 'open my eyes'.

The orange jackets empty into the night. The count has begun.

A few hours later I ring MacMahon to ask how it's going. He says it's going very well. They've counted six people, and two of those were awake and willing to answer the more detailed survey questions.

But the really great thing about their night is this: when his team of three arrived in Onehunga, a couple of 'lovely' former streeties were waiting, offering to help them find places where rough sleepers might be.

These people, no longer homeless themselves and not a formal part of the project, had heard about the count and had gone out of their way to help people who were going through what they'd once gone through. MacMahon thought that was kind of wonderful.

* Ira Mata, Ira Tangata – Auckland's Homeless Count: www.aucklandshomelesscount.org.nz