Homelessness persists

Otago Daily Times

a day ago

Nobody expects solutions to decades-long poor housing provision in New Zealand to happen overnight, but it is hard to see coherence in the government's approach so far.
It has made much of its success in getting families out of emergency accommodation.
However, charities have become increasingly concerned tougher emergency housing rules and a two-strike warning policy for tenants have resulted in more people sleeping rough.
This week The Salvation Army released a housing update with information sourced from other charities and more than 50 official information requests to local and central government.
Among the sorry statistics cited was that there had been a 386% increase in emergency housing declines on the basis people had contributed to their homelessness in the six months since changes were made to the way the Ministry of Social Development supported people in emergency housing.
Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka has disputed this calculation, saying there was a range of causes for homelessness, and one of the biggest was disconnection with families and whanau.
Whatever the reasons for the number of homeless people which The Salvation Army suggests is now 1 in 1000, the government has been slow to accept there is an increasing problem.
It has frequently fobbed off questions about it by saying the reasons for people being without homes are complex, and contrary to what charities said, that anyone who is in genuine need of emergency housing would be able to get help.
In Dunedin, the plight of the homeless has been well documented by this newspaper in recent years, and the decision by Kāinga Ora earlier this year to scrap 10 housing projects which would have provided 120 houses in the city has been hard to understand.
High rentals are also a problem, with Salvation Army Dunedin community ministries manager Captain Logan Bathurst describing the situation as bringing housing insecurity close to a tipping point.
Median rents in the three months to May were down 0.3% nationally, but in Dunedin they were up by 8.7%.
The government's lack of enthusiasm for councils building new social housing has also not helped those councils keen to do more. Former local government minister Simeon Brown went as far as saying if a council had a choice about whether to fix roads or build more social houses, it should be focused on fixing roads.
It is not clear that this discouragement, combined with the binning of Kāinga Ora projects around the country and the loss of skilled workers is going to be offset any time soon by the supposed boost to other social housing providers, and such changes as moves to allow easier building of granny flats and pushing councils to free up more land for housing.
Last week after the release of the "Homelessness Insights Report" which showed an ongoing trend of increasing homelessness, the government has sought advice from officials on further targeted interventions to provide help and support to those living without shelter.
It has also sought recommendations around better use of existing programmes and was open to new ideas which would make an enduring difference.
Listening to what communities are telling it rather than political posturing and denying its policy's possible contribution would be a good start. Laugh along with Brooke
Let's give credit where it is due. Regulation busting Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden has given us a laugh-out-loud moment in a wet dreary week for much of the country.
According to Ms van Velden, some farmers fear their kids collecting eggs is illegal.
The consensus is this claim is a cluck too far, but to Ms van Velden it's no yolk.
She thinks egg collecting would fall under a regulation which states no workers under 15 can be involved in the manufacture or preparation of goods for trade or sale or any other work likely to compromise health and safety.
Breaching this could result in a $50,000 fine.
Ms van Velden will be "consulting with farmers and the agriculture sector on the thresholds for light chores children can do on farms, like collecting eggs, feeding small animals and watering plants, while ensuring safety is not compromised".
We hope she will not be surprised if swearing is involved.