Invisible in the SuperCity

Nowhere to call home is the devastating reality for numbers of Auckland children and their parents.

In a survey of 1202 people seeking assistance from Salvation Army and Catholic community services, 47 per cent (568) of homeless people were children, some of whom were living in cars, garages, camping grounds and emergency housing. This is the startling picture captured in the latest report of The Salvation Army Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit on housing need in Auckland Invisible in the SuperCity.

“The social housing needed by these people is not currently available in sufficient quantity and present Government actions are not delivering sufficient affordable homes,” she says.

For families without housing, it is common for them to be homeless for up to six months before the situation can be resolved. More than 49% of the respondents had not been in contact with the Ministry of Social Development, the government agency responsible to address housing need in New Zealand.

“We hope by publicising the situation of these children and their families in this report, the Government and local authorities will be spurred to act with more urgency than we are currently seeing,” says Director of The Salvation Army’s Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit, Major Sue Hay.

“Auckland cannot be the world’s most liveable city and fail to house its people,” she says.

The Salvation Army report makes seven recommendations it believes will better address the situation of people without housing.

Two of these recommendations are:

• Government developing a programme to increase the supply of social housing by 1000 houses a year in Auckland over the next 10 years, or until waiting lists reduce to less than 100
• Improved access to the Ministry of Social Development for people who have acute housing needs.

The report will be publically launched at The Salvation Army’s central Auckland supportive housing centre, Epsom Lodge, this morning.

Download and read the report here.

Enquiries:

Ms Reina Harris
Salvation Army Policy Analyst and Report Author
Mobile: 027 7246800
DDI: 09 2611066

Major Sue Hay
Director, The Salvation Army Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit
Mobile: 027 635 2822
DDI: 09 261 0885