March 08, 2024
Emergency housing system broken
The head of a marae supporting homeless whanau says the emergency housing system is broken – but he’s not sure the Government’s new policy will fix it.
The Government says it will give push whanau with children up the queue to move from emergency accommodation to state housing.
It will also make it harder for people to get emergency housing grants, including asking them what efforts they have made to find alternatives such as private rentals or moving in with friends or relatives.
Hurimoana Dennis from Te Puea Memorial Marae in Mangere says most people in emergency accommodation are there with children, so the priority change will make little difference.
He says putting whanau in motels was better then them living in cars where they couldn’t be found, but the motels have become squalid and violent and the programme has got out of hand.
“Back in the day, 2016, 2017 there was only supposed to be a short stopover so everyone could catch their breath, the agencies and us could catch up with where they were at and work something out. You can’t do that in a car,” Mr Dennis says.
He says the first step in fixing homelessness is to bring it within a single system rather than the current mess where the Ministry for Social Development, the Ministry for Housing and Urban Development and Kainga Ora run separate systems.