The 2019 budget announcements released earlier today had a strong focus on mental health and child well being, with little being said about housing and homelessness.
Earlier this month the Government announced an almost $200 million boost to tackle chronic homelessness, providing a “wraparound” service, through its Housing First initiative.
Housing First is the government’s approach to housing and supporting homeless people quickly, to help people stay housed and address the issues that lead to their homelessness.
The boost in funding means the service can be extended to a further 1,044 people in high need areas.
But Salvation Army Social Policy Analyst Tupetoa Ronji Tanielu, says he expected more focus on housing in the budget.
“When you’re talking about mental health and addictions, and child wellbeing and child poverty, all of those are often connected to a housing issue.”
Tanielu says he’s encouraged by the investment into the “sharper end of the housing continuum”, the most vulnerable communities, where large numbers of our Pacific communities sit. But he believes more funds should have been given, for instance, towards a shared equity scheme to help families break into the home ownership market.
The latest statistics from Auckland’s Homeless Count show Pasifika people are overrepresented in temporary accommodation statistics. Since the 1980s Pacific home ownership has been trending downwards to just 18.5% of the population.
Housing Minister Phil Twyford revealed earlier this month, that KiwiBuild was not meeting its projected targets, and would not be receiving any additional funding in the 2019 budget. Tanielu says there needs to be a solution.
“A Kiwibuild house is 650K, the average income in Māngere, my neighbourhood, is about 19K, and the average household income is about 60K, so even in those numbers, people still will not be able to afford even a Kiwibuild home, and so they need some sort of support from the government”.
New Zealand’s housing crisis has resulted in nationwide homelessness, with the latest Auckland Homeless Count showing a minimum of 3,674 people living without shelter and in temporary accommodation across the Auckland region.
