Government considers crackdown on inner-city homelessness

Wednesday, 5 November 2025

Homeless on the streets of Newtown, Wellington

The Government is considering a crackdown on inner-city homelessness.

Rumours of an impending move to criminalise homelessness emerged earlier this week, prompting Opposition MPs to question Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in the House about incoming legislation.

Luxon, on Tuesday, said there were no Cabinet decisions or discussion on the topic of banning people homelessness in central business districts.

But on Wednesday it became clear Government ministers have been considering an intervention, possibly in the form of a “move on” law, to shift problematic behaviour out of city centres, particularly a “bedraggled” Auckland.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says ‘move on’ orders were ‘one of the things you’d want to be considering’. It appears the Government is considering this.

“We are looking and engaging with lots of different stakeholders in Auckland. It's very clear to me, Aucklanders want the CBD sorted. Visitors coming into Auckland, you know, we need to make sure it's a good presentation,” Luxon said.

“And yes, move on orders would be one of the things that you'd want to be considering.

“But obviously, when you consider them, you've got to make sure that you've got the right support structures in place to support people as well. So I'm sure that'll be part of the conversation.”

Luxon reiterated that legislation was not being drafted.

However, there is legislation already waiting. National MP Ryan Hamilton in June put a members’ bill in the ballot titled Policing (Direction to Move On) Amendment Bill, which could be pulled to become a Government bill.

The bill, explicitly backed by Police Minister Mark Mitchell, would allow police to order a person to leave a specified areas for up to 24 hours, if the person’s behaviour is causing, or likely to cause, harassment, alarm, distress, public nuisance, disorder or anti-social behaviour.

“At the moment, there's no powers to be able to move people on that come in and create social issues, intimidate people, and they're at risk themselves,” Mitchell said.

Auckland rough sleepers almost doubled from 426 in September 2024 to 809 in May this year while Christchurch jumped from 106 to 270 over a six-month period. In Wellington the number of rough sleepers rose by 24% in a year to 141 people rough sleeping in the capital from January to March.

The Post has previously reported on instances of intimidation at ATMs or shops, with one Wellington business owner recently writing an open letter to authorities asking for help.

“While we understand that people may face difficult circumstances, this individual’s behaviour has become increasingly aggressive, disruptive, and threatening towards businesses, residents and passersby,” the letter said.

Mitchell said the idea of the bill was to “actually… take them to a place of safety. That's the whole idea of it.”

But he said it was for Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith to determine whether the bill would be taken up.

Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said social service providers had raised the alarm with her about the Government considering law to move homeless people from CBDs.

Goldsmith said he was looking at options and had considered recommendations from the Government’s retail advisory group.

Housing Minister Chris Bishop would not directly confirm “move on” orders were being considered. He said he did not know of Hamilton’s member’s bill.

“Ministers are looking at a range of things that we can do in and around the CBD, because with CRL [City Rail Link] opening next year, and with the International Convention [Centre] opening, there is concern that the CBD is looking bedraggled.

“We want to make sure that the CBD is looking as good as possible and, you know, people are proud of the CBD of Auckland.”

Bishop said there was no “silver bullet ” for homelessness, hence the Government was aggressively pursuing a “housing first” strategy.

Auckland Central MP Chlöe Swarbrick said social service providers in the city centre had raised the alarm about the Government’s intentions, prompting her to contact Government ministers.

“What I have had confirmed to me by those ministers … is that they are working through the drafting of that legislation, but that it won't be dropped down out of the sky.

“Simply moving people along doesn't actually deal with the issue. It puts the issue in another place. If we want to actually deal with the issue and offer the reduced downstream costs and impacts, then we would be housing people and providing wraparound support.”

The service providers would be holding an urgent meeting on Friday morning, she said.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said “making it illegal to be homeless” in CBDs was not going to deal with homelessness.