Local councils form new homelessness support group as numbers rise

Councils say a rise in the number of people sleeping rough has seen local authorities put their heads together to better support those people into safe, secure housing.

A new group, Te Kāuru, was formed earlier this year and involves representatives from 30 councils.

They are all sharing ideas to help prevent homelessness and support street sleepers and those living in cars, garages and on friends' couches.

Peniel Elliott from Tauranga City Council is part of Te Kāuru's steering group and said it started with a noticeable spike in rough sleeping across the motu.

"There have been a chain of emails... [with] questions and sharing knowledge and resources on what other people are doing in their regions.

"What we realised was in each of the regions, we were seeing an increase in homelessness," she said.

Councils were often the first port of call for members of the public concerned about homelessness, Elliott said.

"We are balancing the wider community needs, and the needs of the community members who are experiencing housing stress in our regions.

"We do field a lot of complaints when it comes to... someone sleeping in a doorway, or someone sleeping in a car in a reserve, or in parks."

Councils had to respond to those complaints, but were looking at doing so in a different way, she said.

"We're noticing a theme... if we start working with the providers in our regions and be a bit more proactive, so it isn't just a reactive response, we are able to see a little bit more progress."

That included ensuring council officers were not just moving people from one spot to another, but connecting them to services they might need like mental health support, Elliott said.

The collective was working with other support organisations to produce a report on local government's response to homelessness, including insights on the state of homelessness and how they would work to prevent it in their communities.

Māori housing advocate urges councils to think differently

Māori housing advocacy organisation Te Matapihi's chief executive Ali Hamlin-Paenga said councils proactively helping people who were homeless - rather than reacting to a member of the public calling in to complain - were taking the best approach.

"Some people think that our homeless whānau are imposing on somebody else's way of living.

"But there are certain things that have happened in their lives that have actually put them in that position, and if we don't consider those complexities, we're not going to get to a solution."

Hamlin-Paenga said a recent hui about local government's response to homelessness revealed some councils seemed to be working for the people who called up to complain about rough sleepers, and not for "the greater good".

"There are some councils who are actually doing an amazing job and there are some councils who are listening and thinking about how they can do better.

"And then there are some councils that probably need a little bit more help in their thinking."

The formation of Te Kāuru was a good step towards that, she said, adding that Wellington City Council was leading by example.

Wellington City Council takes a 'compassionate approach' to homelessness

Wellington City Council, which is part of Te Kāuru, has included its homelessness response as part of its city safety plan approved earlier this year.

It planned to "strengthen the community's approach to homelessness" which included organising bespoke support for about 30 chronically homeless people in the central city, funding local support services like Downtown Community Ministry (DCM) and the City Mission, and collecting data to identify gaps in service provision and the evolving needs of the homeless population.

Its approach was designed to make homelessness "rare, brief and non-recurring", council papers showed.

Local service providers understood best how to connect with those people, what their situation was, their background and what help they needed, the council's senior responsible officer for city safety Sehai Orgad said.

"It's really important that... we walk alongside those partners, DCM especially," she said.

Harm prevention team lead Millie Lambess said the council supported "assertive outreach".

"Assertive outreach is about bringing services and those that have the skills to... meet people where they're at, whether that's on Courtenay Place, whether that's in the park, in a tent somewhere, it's about building relationships with people over time to rebuild trust that's been lost in systems and some of the support that is available to people."

Officers would later this month ask councillors to agree to the creation of a Homelessness Coordination Service, bringing together a range of partners to help those sleeping rough.

More details would be revealed when the officers' paper went to council.

Is it local government's job to help the homeless?

Wellington City Councillor Teri O'Neill heads the social, cultural and economic committee, and said there had been a significant increase in the capital's "visible" homelessness population - and those living in garages, tents and on friend's couches.

Data from DCM showed between January and March there were about 130 rough sleepers, up from 106 in the same three months last year.

"We're seeing much larger pressure, and Wellington City Council is taking up that mantle because we believe really strongly in the kaupapa, but it's definitely something central government should be taking responsibility for."

O'Neill said the government's policy changes, like making it harder to access emergency housing, had contributed to that pressure.

The government has consistently denied those changes have contributed to an increase in homelessness.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said rents were stable under his government, the social housing waitlist was dropping, and people were moving out of emergency housing into proper homes.

Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka said people who had a genuine need for emergency housing and met their responsibilities remained eligible for that support.

His government was getting people out of "dire" motels and into better homes, he said.

As at the end of April, there were 453 households in emergency housing, down 86 percent since December 2023 when the coalition took office, Potaka said.

People sleeping rough were often missing support and coordination from agencies like the Ministry of Social Development, ACC, the Ministry of Health, and Oranga Tamariki, O'Neill said.

"That's really where central government holds a lot of the cards."

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