Labour hits panic button on homelessness crisis

Issues around housing and homelessness continue to dog the Government, and Labour’s spokesman Phil Twyford yesterday tried to turn up the heat with a call for a ‘‘state of emergency on homelessness’’ to be declared. With 42,000 people living in ‘‘severe housing stress’’ according to an Otago University study, Twyford said a state of emergency in times of natural disaster galvanises all necessary resources and that was what was needed now to meet the needs of homeless families.