Government response to rough sleeping a step in the right direction - but could put women at risk

The Coalition to End Women’s Homelessness (CEWH) acknowledges that the Government’s joint announcement on Friday from the Ministers of Housing to review housing policy settings is a step in the right direction, as is the immediate increase in 300 Housing First places.

“The rise in rough sleeping has not happened because more people are choosing homelessness - it has come about because of a set of policies that are managing emergency housing policies by exclusion, at the same time as a tough economic context, which is pushing more people into housing precarity,” says CEWH Project Director, Vic Crockford. 

However, CEWH is extremely concerned about the Ministers’ stated move to “rebalance” transitional housing places “towards providers who have demonstrated an ability and willingness to work with rough sleepers”. 

“While the language is vague, if this rebalancing means funding transitional housing providers who work with rough sleepers, at the expense of those who have elected to work with a specific group of people, like women and children or older people - women will lose out,” says Vic. 

CEWH 2024 research Ngā Ara ki te Kāinga: Understanding Barriers and Solutions to Women’s Homelessness in Aotearoa shows that New Zealand’s 57,000 homeless women will do anything to avoid sleeping rough due to the additional safety concerns of gendered violence. 

“Women are usually on couches, in care, or in uninhabitable housing - they will be anywhere but rough sleeping on the street. So if the already reduced transitional housing funding is rebalanced toward rough sleepers, it risks being shifted away from those providers working with women, who may not fit the ‘right criteria’ ”, says Vic.

CEWH warns that it appears the Government is replacing emergency housing with transitional housing without a plan for the potential unintended consequences.

Contact: Ellie Campbell, CEWH Communications Manager: ellie@cewh.org