Auckland’s homelessness has almost doubled, says council report

Monday, 28 July 2025

Bedding belonging to a rough sleeper lies in a doorway on Grey Lynn’s Williamson Ave.

Rough sleeping and homelessness in Auckland has almost doubled in eight months, according to a new council report.

There are now at least 809 “unsheltered homeless” living in the city, though a women’s homelessness organisation says it more widespread but invisible meaning the number is likely higher.

The report comes as the Government comes under pressure to admit its narrowing of criteria for people to access emergency housing has caused a rise in homelessness.

Support services say they are seeing a noticeable increase in the number of homeless people in some of Auckland’s more affluent areas, such as the North Shore.

The homelessness figures are collated from data provided by outreach providers have been prepared for Auckland Council’s community committee ahead of its meeting this week.

It shows the number of known people experiencing homelessness has increased from 426 in September, to 653 in January to 809 in May; a 90% increase over eight months.

The report also includes census data which shows nationally homelessness has risen from 99,462 in 2018 to 112,496 in 2023.

The number of notifications received by the council’s safety team has also more than doubled in the same eight months with 570 received.

Auckland City Mission’s Helen Robinson will tell the council about the rise in women experiencing homelessness

Auckland Council’s community committee is set to hear about the rise at a meeting this Tuesday. It will hear from Auckland City Mission chief executive Helen Robinson who will discuss research the Coalition to End Women's Homelessness.

It’s found there is a disproportionately high rate of women's homelessness in New Zealand and the issue is concentrated in Auckland; 46% of women suffering homelessness in New Zealand live in the city.

And while the visibility of rough sleeping of rough sleeping has increased, the full extent of housing deprivation is much more widespread, with women more invisible than men in situations like couch surfing, sleeping in garages, and in overcrowded or uninhabitable homes, according to the meeting’s agenda.

“There are significant gaps in service delivery and policy addressing women’s homelessness, with most interventions designed around the experiences of homeless men,” a summary of the findings read.

Boney John wakes up a group of sleepers outside Auckland Library.

“Wahine Māori are disproportionately affected by homelessness, with over one third of homeless women in New Zealand being Māori.”

The council has been co-coordinating a cross agency response which has seen response teams implement a “by-name” approach at hot-spots, a targeted hui with government and housing agencies, is exploring solutions for people with pets and is in a trial phase of working with housing partners to expedite access.

In March, the community committee wrote to Minister for Social Development and Employment Louise Upston and Minister of Housing Chris Bishop asking for an increase in funding for people with acute housing needs.

'With social housing being cut and social housing programmes being stopped, this situation is going to get worse,' said chair Angela Dalton.

Auckland Council’s mission is that homelessness in the city be “rare, brief and non-recurring” and in the latest financial year invested more than $600,000 into initiatives.

The Auckland data and community committee meeting comes as the Government comes under pressure to acknowledge that changes it made to who and how people access emergency housing has contributed to the rise.

The recent Homelessness Insights report showed the number of emergency housing grant application rejections nationally climbed from about 3% in March 2024 to more than 30% in March 2025.

Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka is under pressure for changes made to accessing emergency housing.

This week Associate Minister of Housing Tama Potaka was asked in Parliament by Labour how he could claim his policies were working when homelessness in Auckland had doubled.

Potaka replied there was “no doubt” there was a genuine housing need.

“But what the report also says is, and I quote, ‘It is not possible to determine the extent to which changes described in this report reflect existing trends and broader economic and social contexts or are attributable to policy changes’.”

In March last year, the Government made it tougher for people to get into emergency housing as part of its drive to reduce reliance on it, including the needs for people to prove their need for emergency housing and that they had not contributed to that need themselves.

Less than a year later, it announced it had met its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75% five years early.

The Government was warned by the Ministry of Social Developments that tightening “the gateway” into emergency housing could mean a rise in homelessness.

“Making these changes ahead of significant increases to the supply of affordable housing and more preventative wraparound supports does create a risk of increased levels of rough sleeping, people living in cars and overcrowding (with the potential for associated negative outcomes, and possibly more Reports of Concern to Oranga Tamariki).”

There was also a risk of increasing pressure on other community and government services, including hospitals and mental health and addiction services.

Homelessness in New Zealand is defined as living situations where people are without shelter, in temporary accommodation, or living in uninhabitable housing and have no other options to acquire safe and secure housing.