Source: Radio New Zealand
The number of rough sleepers known to outreach teams has dropped in Auckland. Nick Monro
The number of rough sleepers known to outreach teams has dropped in Auckland, but those on the front line are treating the figure with caution.
Auckland Council’s latest tally shows the number of homeless people social services know of across the region fell from 940 in September to 668 in January – a decrease of 272 that almost matches the number of extra homes funded in that time.
It comes as the government plans controversial move-on orders for those begging or rough sleeping in public.
Council’s head of community impact, Dicky Humphries, said it was too early to tell if the quarter’s drop was a trend or seasonal dip.
“They carry a bit of hope but we do need to do some analysis as to why that might be the case,” he said.
“One quarter drop is not necessarily a trend so we will be looking to the next quarter figure and the one after that to see if this quarter is an anomaly or the start of a trend downwards.”
Humphries said across the region, homelessness had been increasing for some time and numbers could fluctuate.
The count included those working with people experiencing the extreme end of homelessness to those rough sleeping or living in cars.
“Any figure that we have, counted that way, is a sub-set of a much larger figure that is unknown to everyone,” he said.
“There’s a lot of work that’s happening between the social services sector, council and government so it is a figure that we would like to see fall, ongoing.”
Council’s head of community impact, Dicky Humphries, said it was too early to tell if the quarter’s drop was a trend or seasonal dip. Nick Monro
Heart of the South business association general manager, Audrey Williams, said it had noticed an increase in homeless people turning up in recent weeks.
“Since the government started talking about moving people out of Auckland, our numbers have increased. We’re still only at about 15 not huge levels but it has definitely increased and the mental health state of the newcomers is a lot more severe than we’ve ever noticed before.”
Williams said it had not seen a drop in rough sleepers in south Auckland.
Local community liaison officers talked to new arrivals living on the street and she said it appeared they had been told to leave the main city centre.
“They’ve been told that they’re not allowed to rough sleep in the central city, they are told that by the security guards, by the locals,” she said.
“People have taken that as factual ‘you can go somewhere else you’re not allowed to be here in Auckland city’.”
Williams said the business association worked with social agencies and in the last 18 months had helped 30 people get a roof over their head and wrap-around support.
The homeless count was in a Regional Homeless Activity Update, to council’s Community Committee, by council’s homelessness lead Ron Suyker.
The report pointed out that the 272 decrease in rough sleepers coincided with the provision of 207 extra housing places in the Housing First programme, which “has had a positive impact”.
But Suyker said several registered community housing providers that offered wrap-around support and housing for the homeless were exceeding the caps on their contracts.
“The demand is greater than the capacity they have been provisioned to manage,” he said in the report.
“Government target settings in relation to the reduction of reliance on emergency housing have seen an impact, reflected in this report’s numbers, on the ability for homeless tangata to access emergency housing.”
That change was made in October 2024, and between September that year and January 2025 homeless numbers in Auckland jumped 53 percent.
Heart of the South says it’s helped 30 people get a roof over their head and wrap-around support in the last 18 months. Nick Monro
Suyker said the council had provided support to several business associations responding to increased street homelessness in their areas.
“Physical and mental health issues, along with addictions, are presenting in most cases of rough sleeping and individuals needs can be incredibly complex,” he said.
The government funded an extra 300 Housing First places in September last year in a bid to curb homelessness, and the housing ministry said almost 200 rough sleepers had been housed as a result.
The Housing First programme helped people who were chronically homeless into stable, long-term homes and its manager Rami Alrudaini said that showed there was a need for more housing – he did not believe the move-on orders would help.
“We are now seeing the impact of that investment with more than two thirds of those places already filled and now they’re introducing move on enforcement which undermines the very investment they have made, by making it harder for people who are already doing it tough to access the support and housing they need.”
At Wellington’s Downtown Community Ministry (DCM), chief executive Natalia Cleland said there were not enough homes to go around.
DCM was allocated 30 of the extra 300 places in the one-off government provision and had managed to house 10 rough sleepers in the last two months.
Cleland applauded the government for supporting the programme, and the private landlords who leased their homes to people in need, but said there were not enough homes.
“We still have a huge number of people under our service that are waiting for housing that have signed up to Housing First who have said, ‘I’m sleeping rough, please help me to get a home’,” she said.
“Ten is great, but there’s at least 52 people as of today that are rough sleeping under our Housing First service that don’t have access to or a clear pathway to housing.”
Cleland said many homeless people were waiting for housing.
“It’s not that someone’s rough sleeping and needs to be walked down to DCM for support. It’s that they’re rough sleeping and they’re waiting for a home to move into.”
Auckland Council Community Committee chair Julie Fairey. Supplied / City Vision
Auckland Council’s Community Committee would discuss the regional update and impact of move on orders on rough sleepers this Thursday.
Its chair, councillor Julie Fairey, expected discussion to be robust.
“The increase in funding for Housing First places has helped. This is part of the frustration, we know what will work here, the sector has been very clear about what is needed which is more funding for services like Housing First.”
She said there was widespread recognition that anti-social behaviour was a problem that needed to be addressed but questioned whether move-on orders would be effective.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
