Homelessness on the rise

Wellington: Homelessness over the past winter was the worst it has been in years, Housing Minister Phil Twyford says.

He said this was despite the Government putting more people into state and emergency housing.

In the last quarter, 2186 people applied for Government help because they were homeless, while 4613 sought help because they had insecure accommodation.

This was up from 1098 homeless a year ago and 2515 who had insecure accommodation.