Homelessness on the rise in Waikato, new report says

Monday, 22 December 2025

A couple of hundred Waikato people didn’t have a fixed address to give their doctor – and that's just one sign of homelessness in the area.

People sleeping rough or in cars and children without shelter are other examples of the situation shared in the Homelessness insights to 30 September 2025 report, released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.

It comes at the end of a year in which a Salvation Army report flagged a more than 300% increase in homelessness in Hamilton in a year and those behind the city night shelter spoke of being overwhelmed.

As of early October, 250 people in the Waikato health district had “no fixed abode” listed in the national health index, it says. This put Waikato among the top regions for this marker, alongside Auckland, Canterbury, Bay of Plenty and Capital and Coast.

Figures also point to a rise in the number of people living without shelter in Hamilton.

When outreach teams from The People’s Project went out for “Connections Week” in July they met 92 people – 27 rough sleeping and 65 were sleeping in cars. The previous year’s total was 69.

In Thames, about 25 people were estimated to be regularly sleeping rough in the town centre. That figure, provided by Thames-Coromandel District Council and local partners, doesn’t include people staying temporarily before moving on.

Public reports of homelessness in the town have also risen, with 44 reports in the year to September 2025 compared with 33 the year before.

While only a few Waikato locations are named in the report, census data from March 2023 paints a broader picture. Waikato District was among the areas with the highest estimated numbers of children and females living without shelter – 27 children under 15 and 66 females.

The report also shows that in the Waikato region, as well as Northland, Bay of Plenty, East Coast and Taranaki, more than 75% of people in transitional housing were Māori. The ministry says Māori remain over-represented among those experiencing homelessness.

In September, the Government announced extra support for people sleeping rough, including more social housing places for people in the Housing First programme and an investment in locally led initiatives.

The Ministry says homelessness can be the result of many overlapping issues – addiction, mental health struggles, relationship breakdowns, domestic violence and financial stress among them. The situation is also affected by the seasons, with more people visible in colder months. The data in this report covers autumn and winter.

The report says local responses are crucial and notes that “localised population needs are why provider-led responses are important”.

It adds that while population growth and rental inflation have eased slightly, homelessness remains a challenge across the country.

This story was sourced from official documents and generated using a bespoke AI tool overseen and checked by senior journalists.