‘Change those policies’: Missioner warns homelessness will keep rising

Tuesday, 29 July 2025

Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson says everyone deserves access to shelter immediately.

Amid a rapid escalation in homelessness around the country, the Auckland City Mission has urged the Government to change its policies.

And Auckland Council is set to write a second letter to the Government asking for help in addressing the problem.

City Missioner Helen Robinson presented to the council’s community committee on Tuesday afternoon in her role as the head of the Coalition to End Women's Homelessness.

Homelessness in Auckland has risen rapidly recently.

“These are our people and they need you and your voice,” she said.

The Government has set a goal of reducing reliance on emergency housing and last year made it tougher for people to get into emergency housing by requiring people to prove they had not contributed to their need themselves.

Auckland Council is now reporting that rough sleeping and homelessness has almost doubled in eight months and there are now at least 809 “unsheltered homeless” living in the city.

And last week a report by the Ministry of Social Development confirmed homelessness had increased around the country - in Christchurch it was up 73%, rough sleeping in Wellington had increased by 73% and in Taranaki it had risen by 250% in just six months.

The report also said 14% of people leaving emergency housing couldn’t be accounted for and could be homeless.

Robinson is in no doubt the emergency housing changes are a direct factor. She said she had already raised this directly with Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka.

A group of young people have built a space on K Road for young people experiencing homelessness, unstable housing and/or mental health issues to come in and receive the care they need, or directed to specialists who can help.

“I have said to Minister Bishop myself that until the current emergency housing policies change all we will see in our country is a growth in street homelessness,” she said.

“I will continue to ask New Zealand to ‘change those policies’. Every person in New Zealand deserves access to shelter immediately and to the appropriate support that they need as quickly as possible.”

In March, 32% of applications for emergency housing were declined, up 4% from the previous year, the insights report said.

The reasons included: 'The need can be met another way' (34.3%), 'Circumstances could have been reasonably foreseen' (22.5%), 'Not eligible for a grant' (16.7%) and 'Not an emergency situation' (14.7%).

Potaka told The Post homelessness was a concern but it wasn’t just about housing. The causes and required solutions were very complex, he said.

“That’s why the previous Government’s approach of dumping people into dank emergency motels without proper support was a moral and financial catastrophe.”

Emergency housing was available for people with genuine need and the most common reason people were declined was because there was a better way of meeting that need, like transitional housing, Potaka said.

He had asked officials for advice on further targeted interventions.

“We’ve asked for recommendations around better utilisation of existing programmes and existing services, and we are also open to new ideas that will make an enduring difference.”

Robinson, addressing the council committee, said international evidence was very clear that when people were at that really hard end of homelessness, “we must create systems that have low to no barriers”.

She urged the committee to advocate on behalf of its homeless population to central government.

“The experience of homelessness is so all-consuming and marginalising that people are fighting for their survival. That is the privilege of someone like me that gets to sit at this table to have this conversation.

“And the privilege of each of you to have the decision-making capacity.”

Research Robinson presented to the council showed there was a disproportionately high rate of women's homelessness and the issue was concentrated in Auckland; 46% of women suffering homelessness in New Zealand lived in the city.

Robinson said there was no gendered strategy to respond to homelessness and there needed to be one.

“This is madness and our people are suffering … at the moment [women] don’t officially exist as a cohort,” she said.

“This has to stop and I’m asking you to join the coalition.”

The committee agreed to send another letter to the Government and is seeking advice on how to express that when central government withdraws from a service, local government or charities had to fill the void.