Manaaki Rangatahi marked World Homeless Day 2024 on October 10 with impactful art activations led and inspired by rangatahi. Photo: Manaaki Rangatahi
A new report on homelessness in Aotearoa shows more Pasifika families were denied emergency housing due to ineligibility than were accepted in the month of March.
Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga - Ministry of Housing and Urban Development - has published its latest insights report, dated June 2025.
The report said there were 60 Pacific peoples' households in emergency housing in March 2025, while 75 Pacific peoples' households were denied.
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"An emergency housing grant decline represents an application that has been processed and considered ineligible," the report said.
"The number of declines should not be considered representative of unmet demand for services, as we do not know the level of need that does not progress to a processed application."
It said where people are declined emergency housing assistance, the Ministry of Social Development may provide other options, such as a referral to transitional housing, or housing support products that provide financial assistance.
When it comes to Housing First clients in Auckland, nearly half the households waiting had a primary client who is Māori, while over a quarter (26.7 percent) are Pasifika.
Housing First supports people living without shelter, with high or complex needs, to access and maintain stable housing and address trauma and other challenges.
The report said the ethnicity comparisons are based on the primary client rather than the overall household - for example, there could be a household of Pasifika, but if the primary applicant identifies as Māori, that will be recorded.
For Māori - who make up more than half of emergency housing clients - the number of households with a Māori primary client granted emergency housing was approximately 380 granted to 260 declined.
A household can also be granted emergency housing and declined emergency housing in the same month.
Census data suggests there were at least 112,500 people in Aotearoa who were severely housing deprived on 7 March 2023, including 4965 people estimated to be living without shelter.
"However, the data and observations we have collated from around the country indicate this has increased," the report said.
