We worked with housing providers, communities and other government agencies to ensure that public housing meets the needs of New Zealanders
Gathering data about homelessness
Some cities and regions are seeing growing numbers of people who are homeless, sleeping rough and facing multiple complex issues like addiction or mental health problems.
Work is under way to develop an accurate count of, and give us better information about, New Zealand’s homeless population. Gaining better data will help us target our responses more effectively, develop ways to prevent homelessness, and support the cross-agency work programme on Māori housing that MBIE and Te Puni Kōkiri are leading.
Housing First
Housing First is an internationally proven approach to house and support people who have been homeless for a long time and have multiple, complex issues. It provides stable, long-term housing and support services for as long as needed to help people stay housed and build a better life.
New Zealand’s first Housing First programme was set up in 2014 by the Wise Group via The People’s Project in Hamilton. MSD has provided grant funding of $500,000 over two years to support project delivery.
In conjunction with Auckland Council, we fund the Auckland Housing First programme, which started in March 2017, to provide up to 572 places in Auckland. By 30 June 2018, 285 people or households had been placed into stable housing, and most have remained housed.
In May 2018 Housing First providers began to reach out to homeless people in Christchurch and Tauranga, with funding for up to 100 places in each city. In Wellington and the Hutt Valley, a collective of providers is working on a proposal to deliver up to 150 Housing First places.
In May and June 2018, following a Government decision to fund 550 new Housing First places, we launched a further expansion and began to engage with providers in Rotorua, Northland and Whangarei, Napier, Hastings, Blenheim and Nelson.
Improving public housing supply
We are actively partnering with housing providers and communities to increase the supply of housing for people in need. We have engaged with the housing sector, commercial developers, local councils, iwi and providers around the country. There is strong willingness within the sector to deliver more public housing, transitional housing, and social services, like those offered through Housing First.
As at 30 June 2018 there were 67,228 public housing places[38], an increase of 1,128 compared with the number of houses at 30 June 2017. Community housing providers (CHPs) now own or manage 5,428 public housing tenancies, with 61,800 provided by Housing New Zealand. There were 31 active community housing providers.
A Request for Proposal for new public housing supply in Auckland that closed on 31 March 2018 generated significant interest and a number of opportunities for increasing housing supply. We will deliver around 6,400 additional public housing places with Housing New Zealand and community housing providers over the next four years. At 30 June 2018 we securely delivered 2,849 places (549 with community housing providers and 2,300 provided by Housing New Zealand) in Auckland and 2,505 (325 with community housing providers and 2,180 provided by Housing New Zealand) elsewhere in New Zealand.
While we intend to bring on more public housing over the next four years, transitional housing is still needed to house people and families in immediate need of a place to live. We secured 1,218 more transitional housing places, bringing the total number of places to 2,341. We anticipate that these will support more than 37,000 households over the next four years.
While many transitional housing developments are new builds or renovations, the purchase or repurposing of motels for transitional housing has been necessary to meet need in some situations.
As at 30 June 2018:
- Housing New Zealand had purchased five former motels on our behalf, providing an additional 66 transitional housing places, at a combined purchase price of just over $12 million39
- 592 motel units had been contracted for transitional housing as a short-term measure until longer-term supply is established.
We responded to the expected winter increase in demand for housing
In early 2018 we began preparing a response to the expected increase in housing demand in the coming winter. The Winter 2018 Response, which runs to 30 September 2018, aims to:
- deliver 1,537 places across Housing First, transitional and public housing during winter 2018
- ensure that anyone who approaches us for help with housing is supported to find a place to stay.
As at the end of June 2018, we had confirmed 1,039 of the 1,537 additional places for the Winter 2018 Response.
We have actively engaged with providers and frontline services, and appealed for anyone to come forward with ideas and options to house people during winter.
Footnotes
[38]. Ministry of Social Development Housing Quarterly Report, June 2018, published at https://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-and-our-work/work-programmes/social-housing/housing-quarterly-report-jun2018.pdf.
[39]. This compares with $32.5 million paid out in Emergency Housing Special Needs Grants in 2017/2018.
