The Government has announced an expansion of support services for people sleeping rough through five immediate actions aimed at getting people into stable housing.
The first is to expand the Housing First programme, which assists people experiencing chronic homelessness into permanent housing.
“It also provides tailored support to help people live in the home and build a better life,” said Housing Minister, Chris Bishop.
“Housing First delivers results – but it there are still a lot of people identified within the Housing First programme in need of stable housing. So today we can announce that the Government will fund an additional 300 social homes for Housing First, effective immediately. The focus for these additional social homes will be rough sleepers.
“These additional social homes, likely to be mostly one-bedroom homes, will be leased from the private rental market in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch rather than built new. Leasing existing homes is a deliberate choice – it means Housing First providers can immediately begin contracting the homes and supporting people into them without the time lag caused by consenting and building.”
Associate Housing Minister, Tama Potaka says the second action is to provide $10 million additional funding for support services for people sleeping rough.
“The intention here is to provide additional funding for services that are already established and have proven success. These services are likely to be specific to certain locations – because what works in Christchurch may not work in Hamilton and vice versa. Officials will work with trusted frontline experts to identify the services this funding should go towards,” he said.
“The third action, which is already underway, is work to increase the efficiency of transitional housing. This means making sure that we have the right transitional housing properties in the right locations and with the right providers to ensure we can better support demand. There could be some rebalancing of places towards providers who have demonstrated an ability and willingness to work with rough sleepers.”
The Ministers have directed officials to significantly increase this occupancy rate by ensuring transitional housing places are located in the areas with the greatest demand, reducing turnaround time between tenants, and speeding up the time it takes to move a new client into transitional housing.
“This will mean fewer units sitting vacant and more homeless people being housed,” said Mr Potaka.
“The fourth action is I expect that MSD assess all beneficiaries going into these social homes for good cause to redirect their benefit to contribute to accommodation costs.
“Most people in social housing pay a contribution of 25 per cent of their income. Beneficiaries in social housing can choose to pay this through a direct deduction from their benefit – but many choose not to. Non-payment of rent over a sustained period can eventually result in tenancy termination and homelessness. Implementing a redirection where good cause exists was a recommendation from a frontline homelessness provider.”
The fifth action is to encourage Ministry of Social Development (MSD) staff to use greater discretion when assessing emergency housing applications, said Minister Potaka.
“We are not changing the requirements people need to meet to qualify for emergency housing. Those requirements are firm but fair, and to relax them risks going back to the emergency housing motel catastrophe under the previous government when thousands of families and children were consigned to live in dank motel rooms for months or even years on end.”
“But MSD staff can and do use their discretion when assessing emergency housing applications. Together with Social Development Minister Louise Upston, we are making it clearer to those staff that they should feel empowered to use their good judgement and common sense when determining whether someone should qualify.
“The Government is committed to delivering the right homes, in the right places, with the right supports for rough sleepers. These five actions will help to deliver on this commitment,” he said.
