Expert says homelessness likely worse than 2023 Census showed

The 2023 Census indicated a 37 per cent increase between 2018 and 2023, reaching almost 5,000 without shelter. And the June Homelessness Insights released recently show rough sleeping worsening nationwide, across all measures. 

Social housing commentator Bernie Smith, who formerly led the Catholic Monte Cecilia Housing Trust, said reports from local councils of increasing homelessness could not be dismissed as anecdotal, and the reality is likely worse than the Census figures.

“I don’t think even the Census was accurate enough on homelessness, because many of the homeless people are not contactable or weren’t interested in filling out the census because they couldn’t see any relevance to their homelessness,” Mr Smith said.

He agreed that changes in emergency accommodation, such as no longer using motels for this purpose, had contributed, but this wasn’t the only factor.

“We have a cost of living crisis, rental increases substantially, we have got people that were once comfortable, even though they were just surviving, now falling into homelessness and into crisis,” Mr Smith said.

Late last month, the Salvation Army released the results of its latest survey conducted under the National Homelessness Data Project, a collaborative initiative involving frontline housing and homelessness organisations across the country, Star News reported.

The survey’s findings showed a sharp rise in housing insecurity and distress – including that one in every 1000 people in New Zealand is without shelter, 57,000 women are experiencing homelessness and 14 in every 1000 people live in housing considered uninhabitable.

Dunedin Night Shelter manager David McKenzie said the organisation had been contributing to the data project and the conversation around it for the past year.

While there was ongoing work to gather data on the situation, it was made more difficult by the lack of a national homelessness register, he said.

“The housing register doesn’t fully capture who is homeless, because it doesn’t cover people who have been couch surfing or living in cars – those people tend to be invisible in the data.”

In its report, the Salvation Army had acknowledged the Government’s work to date on housing and its increased engagement with the issue and the sector of late. However, the impact of New Zealand’s housing deficit was “an unparalleled disruption that is affecting our most vulnerable people and whānau”, Salvation Army lieutenant-colonel Ian Hutson said.

The report also highlighted that access to emergency housing was becoming increasingly restricted, with a 386 per cent rise in Ministry of Social Development rejections since August 2024.

FULL STORY

Expert warns Homelessness Insights Report may not display extent of issue (NewsTalkZB)

Night Shelter joins urgent call to help homeless | Otago Daily Times Online News (Star News)

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