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August 08, 2016
Bureaucracy and poor decisions make it tough on whanau
Waatea Team
Posted On August 8, 2016
The chair of Te Puea Marae says government agencies haven’t covered themselves in glory in dealing with a growing homeless crisis.
The Mangere marae is winding down its homeless programme after assessing and finding temporary or permanent accommodation for about 60 whanau totalling 167 people.
Huri Dennis says nine whanau are still on site, and he’s confident places can be found for them.
He says what made homelessness front and centre as an issue at the start of winter was families sleeping in cars, it’s a problem that has been building up without government agencies developing an effective response.
"Bureaucracy and poor decision making seem to be what swirls around or causative issues. Some of our agencies haven't made it any easier for people to being accessed wrong. The front end of the business doesn't look nice or doesn't look or behave how it should be. Long story short some of our whanau aren't getting places," he says.
Huri Dennis says while the underlying problem seemed to be lack of affordable accomodation in Auckland’s overheated housing market, overcrowding, family violence, mental health and substance abuse can also time people into homelessness.
Copyright © 2016, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
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