Homing rough sleepers is important first step
Sleeping outside Wellington’s Downtown Community Ministry, all Tony wanted was a home.
It was a last stop after years of rough living, years spent on and off a Housing New Zealand waiting list, and years since the death of his beloved girlfriend took away the roof over his head.
‘‘I was into the street life, and these departments I was going to for help, they didn’t understand the street life.’’
But maybe the agencies don’t have to understand it to help.
A Housing First initiative, which offers the homeless a house before any other support, is finding favour as a solution to an entrenched issue.
Dr Sam Tsemberis, a Canadian community psychologist who founded the internationally recognised initiative, said New Zealand could solve a ‘‘totally manageable’’ chronic homelessness problem.
‘‘The number of people that are rough sleeping, relative to the population, is a small number.
‘‘You’ve got a situation that actually has a solution, and now there seems to be a political will to actually do something about it,’’ Tsemberis said.
He held a workshop with 75 policy-makers and community workers in Wellington on Wednesday, and was encouraged by the momentum of the initiative.
The Government’s 2018 Budget put $60 million into a four-year Housing First programme, adding 550 dwellings to an already established 900.
The initiative has been developed in Auckland, Tauranga and Christchurch, with the Ministry of Social Development providing homes to 288 chronically homeless households, as of June 30.
In Wellington, up to 150 Housing First places have been proposed for later this year.
It comes as 8704 households sit on a state house waiting list, a 56 per cent increase in the past year.
Downtown Community Ministry’s figures show the number of rough sleepers seeking help has jumped from 151 in 2015, to 242 in 2017.
Tsemberis said Housing First must next be taken to scale, with a percentage of state houses set aside to offer immediate tenancy to the chronically homeless.
Tony is an example of how Housing First can be a success, though it isn’t an example of the policy in action. ‘‘Housing First is immediate access, [Tony’s] is fortuitous access.’’
Tony – who declined to give his last name – speaks with pride while sitting on the tired red couch in the one-bedroom flat he moved into back in May.
DCM director Stephanie McIntyre said ideally Tony would have accessed housing the moment he asked for it.
‘‘There seems to bea political will to actually do something.’’ Dr Sam Tsemberis, a Canadian community psychologist