Photo: Supplied
The Auckland City Mission is disappointed less than one-third of people in the Housing First programme will receive a home.
On Friday, the Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka announced the government would fund an additional 300 social homes.
"These additional social homes, likely to be mostly one-bedroom homes, will be leased from the private rental market in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch rather than built new," Bishop said.
"Leasing existing homes is a deliberate choice - it means Housing First providers can immediately begin contracting the homes and supporting people into them without the time lag caused by consenting and building."
Wellington City missioner Murray Edridge expected an immediate decrease in people sleeping rough as a result.
"The government have heard from the community for a long time about the increasing severity and intensity of homelessness in New Zealand, and particularly rough sleeping, and what I think we've seen today is a really thoughtful and considered response to that.
"It's not going to fix all the problems, but it's going to go some way towards addressing the issues that are so prevalent in our community at the moment."
But Auckland City missioner Helen Robinson said there were 985 people on the waitlist - 37.8 percent of whom have been homeless for three or more years.
"When I heard the news about the 300, while I was delighted, I did start to wonder about persons 301 and 302 and 303."
Robinson said the announcement did not meet the level of need, especially in Auckland, where more than 800 people are sleeping rough.
It was a 90 percent increase since September 2024, when the tightened emergency housing eligibility criteria was introduced.
"Until the policy settings are changed, the number of people sleeping rough will continue to rise."
At the time of the 2023 census, 112,496 people were estimated to be severely housing deprived, with 4965 of those estimated to be living without any shelter.
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