Government must act on homelessness, parties say

The cross-party inquiry into homelessness released their final report recently, which included 20 recommendations to the problem affecting 40,000 New Zealanders.

The report was supported by the Labour, Green and Maori parties who have worked together to present a plan to tackle the issue.

They are now calling on the Government to adopt the recommendations which include rolling out ‘Housing First’ as a primary response, increasing the state housing stock and building more affordable houses.

According to an Otago University report released in August there were nearly 1900 homeless in Northland in 2013, including 687 in Whangarei.

Of those,183 were without habitable accommodation, living rough or in a mobile dwelling.

A further 144 were in nonprivate accommodation such as a night shelter, Women’s Refuge or marae, and 360 were living temporarily in crowded dwellings.

The parties agree homelessness needs a clear national strategy which includes all sectors.

‘‘We know how to fix this problem,’’ says Labour leader Andrew Little.

‘‘The ball is now in the Government’s court. Will they act or will they continue to bury their heads in the sand?’’

‘‘The rate of homelessness in New Zealand should never have happened in the first place,’’ Northland MP Winston Peters says.

‘‘This housing supply and price crisis, will, now take many years to fix.’’