Wellington City Council responds to rising homelessness in Newtown
Monday, 25 August 2025
Join the discussion and have your say in the comments.
Days after ministers were urged to walk through Newtown to see the homeless situation for themselves, the Wellington City Council has unveiled a plan.
An open letter penned by local businesses and residents called for ministers, as well as the council, to respond to a sharp rise in people with complex social needs in the suburb, stating that public intoxication, drug use, antisocial behaviour and safety concerns in shared spaces were symptoms of systems and services under strain.
Officers provided advice to mayor Tory Whanau on Friday afternoon following a meeting with key agencies operating in the area.
The advice, written by senior responsible officer for city safety Sehai Orgad, recommended the council reprioritise its connected community teams to establish a presence at the Newtown Community Centre immediately.
Other proposed council actions included upgrading lighting, installing CCTV cameras, graffiti and litter removal, painted boundary lines around high risk ATMs and public needle disposal bins, though some required additional funding.
Local agencies walking key Newtown streets, business-led evening lighting activations, shopfront safety upgrades, supportive guardianship at St Thomas’ Church, community clean ups, and hui for neighbourhood safety, drug harm and addiction services were proposed actions for a community and partner-led action plan.
The plan would not draw from the recently launched $40 million central city safety and wellbeing plan. Orgad said transferring city initiatives to Newtown would not work and actions such as uniformed patrols would likely cause further community concerns about over-enforcement.
“The issues are different, the community is different, the health and safety responsibilities and requirements are different, and the response must reflect those differences.”
Unlike the central city, Newtown lacked comparable investments in co-ordinated interventions, relying instead on ad hoc efforts from social agencies and community organisations over a sustained, integrated framework, Orgad said.
“Newtown’s strengths, its active residents and strong local services, have not yet been harnessed within a cohesive system that can deliver lasting impact,” she wrote.
A report from Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design has identified five priority sites as areas with poor environmental conditions and problematic behaviour: Constable Street public toilets and playground, Millward Lane, St Thomas’ Church car park, Riddiford Street bus stops and New World supermarket entrance.
The report found that while natural surveillance was strong during the day, inadequate lighting, overgrown vegetation, poorly defined boundaries and slow maintenance responses reduced visibility and perceptions of safety at night.
It also highlighted issues with access control, such as recessed alcoves that attracted encampments and misuse, and the need for clearer ownership cues in public and semi public spaces.
Enhancing the physical environment to improve visibility, and strengthening co-ordinated partnerships between agencies, businesses, and the community were ways to respond.
The plan follows a voted down amendment by councillor Nureddin Abdurahman to extend the city safety plan to Newtown.
He said homelessness and addiction should not be normalised and believed the situation was worse in the suburb than it was in the central city.
“No one chooses to be sleeping when it’s cold, when it’s raining on the street.”
Comments are moderated during working hours and may not appear immediately.