The Government has stated that it will consider a report by opposition MPs on homelessness, despite being unconvinced with the originality of its findings.
It found that each homeless person in New Zealand is costing the taxpayer up to $65,000 per year, a figure that, if correct, would likely swamp the cost of providing homes to the homeless community in the long term.
The Labour Party has called for a ‘state of emergency’ in relation to the issue of homelessness, with Labour’s housing spokesperson Phil Twyford recently stating: “there are 42,000 people homeless and living in severe housing stress while the National Government behaves like a possum in the headlights. It is time to declare a state of emergency and treat this crisis with the urgency it deserves.”
The National Party is currently spending approximately $10 million a year on its nationwide programme of emergency housing, although the Labour Party is requesting that figure be urgently tripled in order to provide accommodation for an additional 5000 individuals and families in urgent need of state housing.
Our local Dunedin North MP, David Clark believes that “New Zealanders are deeply disturbed by seeing pensioners living out their days in campgrounds, and families living in cars. They want positive solutions, and a Government with the political will to fix the crisis."
Collaborative research between the University of Otago’s Wellington and Dunedin campuses has discovered that more than half of all homeless adults in New Zealand are either working or studying, a finding that goes some way to disprove the widespread belief that the homeless community are dangerous due to drug or alcohol abuse.
University of Wellington researcher Dr Kate Amore, from the Health Research Council-funded He Kainga Oranga/Housing and Health Research Programme, stated that “even among one of the most stigmatised populations in New Zealand, most people are participating in society in ways that should allow them to thrive. But this group cannot even access one of our most basic needs—a home.”