October 2025 pānui
Kua whetūrangitia koe | You have returned to the stars
Last week, a deeply sad event reinforced why it is so vital to keep weaving people together - through connection, understanding, and shared action, lasting change begins.
A woman living in homelessness passed away on the North Shore of Tāmaki Makaurau. While we may not know her name or her story, we know she mattered. She was someone’s daughter, someone’s friend, someone with hopes and struggles, and a life of value.
Her death is a painful reminder of how homelessness strips women of safety, dignity, and the simple comfort of a place to rest. We hold her in our thoughts with respect.
May her memory strengthen our resolve to build an Aotearoa where no woman is left without shelter, and no life is lost unseen.
Whiria te tangata | Weave the people together
As the Coalition to End Women’s Homelessness Tira Whakahaere came together for our strategy day last month, we felt the strength that comes when people unite around a shared purpose.
This week, our webinar on the Papatūānuku Paradigm continues that kaupapa - weaving people together to explore solutions to women’s homelessness. Dr Kathie Irwin will introduce the Papatūānuku Paradigm, a toolkit she has designed to support and strengthen the work of CEWH and the wider sector in addressing this complex issue. We are still taking registrations – find out more below.
Across Aotearoa, initiatives like Tairāwhiti iwi’s building programme, Mana Ahuriri’s Pukemokimoki housing development, and Te Whānau o Waipareira’s Whānau Ora Precinct show how, when people come together and focus on a shared purpose, lives and entire communities can be transformed.
When people are woven together into supportive networks with a shared vision and action – lasting change can be made for women, whānau, and our communities.
Nāku noa,
Victoria Crockford and Kathie Irwin,
Project Director and Kaihautū, Coalition to End Women’s Homelessness
NEWS AND VIEWS
Event reminder tomorrow - Lunchtime Learning: Explore the Papatūānuku Paradigm with Dr. Kathie Irwin
Don’t miss tomorrow’s free one-hour webinar with Dr. Kathie Irwin, introducing the Papatūānuku Paradigm, a toolkit to strengthen the work of CEWH and the wider sector in addressing women’s homelessness.
Date: Wednesday, 8 October
Time: 12–1pm
Register: here
Find out more about the Papatūānuku Paradigm here.
Find out more about Dr. Kathie Irwin here.
Save the date for our next Lunchtime Learning webinar: CEWH Research Ngā Ara ki te Kāinga – Understanding Barriers and Solutions to Women’s Homelessness in Aotearoa
Join the Coalition to End Women’s Homelessness for our next Lunchtime Learning webinar.
Date: Monday 3 November
Time: 12–1pm
Location: Online (free)
Registration details coming soon
Researchers Tanita Bidois and Callum Sleigh will share key findings and insights from Ngā Ara ki te Kāinga, launched by CEWH in December 2024.
This session will explore women’s interactions with government agencies, mental health services, and the justice system, highlighting why women’s homelessness often remains hidden in plain sight. Tanita and Callum will also discuss the urgent need for gender-responsive housing and homelessness policies.
Beyond bricks and mortar – housing that transforms lives and communities
Across Aotearoa, iwi and community organisations are showing that building homes is just the beginning of creating stronger, healthier communities. At the Pou Tahua Symposium, Annette Wehi of Toitū Tairāwhiti highlighted how their journey from twenty- three whare to running their own building factory is creating jobs, financial literacy, and pathways from homelessness to home ownership, while reconnecting whānau to their whenua, whakapapa, and hauora.
In Napier, Mana Ahuriri Trust’s twenty - four unit Pukemokimoki housing development is moving rapidly through its early construction phases, with a mauri stone from Te Whanganui-a-Orotū connecting the project spiritually to the whenua. This development, the first under their Accelerated Housing Programme, is a vital step toward delivering warm, safe, dry homes, with around four hundred homes planned across multiple sites.
Meanwhile, in Mangere, Te Whānau o Waipareira, in partnership with Ngā Tai ki Tāmaki Whenua, has reached stage one of its Whānau Ora Precinct - providing ninety- two social housing units for kaumātua alongside a future Health and Wellness Centre. Situated next to Middlemore Hospital, this forty- one year vision aligns housing with wraparound health and wellbeing services, ensuring homes support holistic wellbeing for kaumātua, kuia, and physically challenged whānau.
These projects show that housing solutions are most powerful when they combine shelter with opportunity, wellbeing, and connection.
Economic inequality and women’s homelessness in Aotearoa
In this recent article, The World Bank highlights how high economic inequality limits opportunity and exacerbates poverty. This certainly resonates here in Aotearoa, where women make up over 50% of the homeless population, wāhine Māori are disproportionately affected and women living in homelessness are often pushed into unsafe or precarious housing.
Reducing inequality through better income support, affordable housing, and access to services is essential to prevent women from falling into homelessness. Tackling structural economic barriers is not only good for society but critical for women’s safety and wellbeing.
An important kōrero on housing and dignity for older New Zealanders
The housing crisis doesn’t only affect younger generations - many older people, especially women, are facing homelessness and housing insecurity.
We’re encouraged to see initiatives like Doors to Dignity, led by Christchurch Methodist Mission bringing leaders together to focus on solutions.
Date: Thursday 9th October, 7:00pm - 8:30pm
Location: Aldersgate Centre, 309 Durham Street North, Christchurch Central City.
Register for tickets here
This panel will be a valuable space for insights, collaboration, and action.
Women Revolutionising Housing Hui 2025 (WRH)
6–8 November | Riverside Community Hall, Lower Moutere
Common Ground invites you to join them, and other innovative housing leaders at the Women Revolutionising Housing Hui and/or the Housing Futures Forum.
Together, both events will advance their three hui objectives:
· Building Collective & Community-Led Housing Solutions
· Innovating for Housing Affordability
· Unlocking Policy, Partnerships, and Pathways for Change
WRH Hui (6–8 November) is a women-only three-day gathering to celebrate women’s leadership and contributions in housing and to strengthen our collective voice.
Housing Futures Forum (Friday 7 November, 2–8:30pm, open to all) is a dedicated space for community housing providers, funders, iwi partners, govt, community leaders, industry professionals, and social service organisations.
You can find out more information here
Tickets are available here via Humanitix
Spaces are limited and there are no door sales so Common Ground encourages registration.
Hapai Public: Jo Cribb and Tanita Bidois on barriers and solutions to women’s homelessness in Aotearoa
Recently, CEWH Steering Committee member Jo Cribb and Tanita Bidois, lead qualitative researcher and author of CEWH’s Ngā Ara Ki te Kāinga: Understanding Barriers and Solutions to Women’s Homelessness in Aotearoa, wrote a powerful article for Public Sector Journal, highlighting the research findings.
Ngā Ara Ki te Kāinga reveals that more than 50,000 women in Aotearoa are experiencing severe housing deprivation - a crisis that is too often invisible.
Tanita and Jo call for urgent gender-responsive housing policy solutions and remind us of the strength and resilience of the women whose stories shaped this research.
Read Jo and Tanita’s full piece from Public Sector Journal here
Newsroom: Jo Cribb says crackdown on rough sleepers ignores homeless kids
CEWH Steering Committee member Jo Cribb has written a powerful Newsroom column highlighting the hidden realities of homelessness for women and children in Aotearoa. While the government’s recent housing package focuses on rough sleepers, Jo points out that women and children are often invisible in this conversation - hidden in cars, garages, overcrowded homes, or unsafe housing situations. She stresses that effective policy must go beyond what we see on the streets and respond to the lived experiences of women and children, who make up a significant share of those without adequate shelter.
Read our blog and Jo’s column here
Stuff: The 277 Kiwi kids paying for their parents’ mistakes
CEWH Steering Committee member and Christchurch Methodist Mission Executive Director Jill Hawkey spoke to Stuff’s Senior Political Reporter Bridie Witton about the impacts of the Government’s Kāinga Ora tenancy rules.
In the past year, 277 children have been affected as families lost their homes due to rent arrears or disruptive behaviour - a 500% increase.
Jill noted many affected families are single mothers facing complex challenges and sometimes wanting to remain “invisible” to agencies. She emphasised that stability is critical:
“When you have stability around you then you can thrive and some of those other things can follow,” Jill said.
Read the article here
Sunday Star-Times: Helen Robinson and Jill Hawkey on emergency housing
A recent Sunday Star-Times investigation shows more people are being turned away from emergency housing, despite soaring demand.
CEWH Steering Committee members Helen Robinson and Jill Hawkey warn that restrictive policies are forcing vulnerable people into unsafe boarding houses, couch surfing, or onto the streets. Helen described people sleeping on mattresses during the day at City Mission’s HomeGround, while Jill reported that many in Christchurch have stopped approaching MSD, knowing they’ll likely be declined.
Official data confirms applications turned down have more than doubled since 2020, and many women report feeling safer on the streets than in boarding houses.
For CEWH, Helen and Jill’s voices reinforce what our research shows: women’s homelessness is growing, hidden, and dangerous. Restrictive policies are leaving wāhine with fewer safe options.
Read our blog here
Read the article here
POLICY AND POLITICAL INSIGHTS
Government announcement on short-term actions for homelessness
Many of you will have seen the Government’s recent announcement on immediate support for people living without shelter, including rough sleepers and those sleeping in cars. Key measures include:
300 additional social housing places for Housing First households, delivered through Housing First providers.
$10 million funding for local providers to improve responses for people sleeping rough.
Enhanced use of existing programs, including transitional housing, emergency housing grants, and redirected benefits for accommodation costs.
These steps target immediate support in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, and Christchurch as part of a broader effort to tackle homelessness.
CEWH response: a step forward, but risks for women
CEWH welcomes the Government’s announcement as a step in the right direction. However we warn that plans to “rebalance” transitional housing toward providers working with rough sleepers could put women at risk.
Our research shows that women experiencing homelessness often avoid sleeping rough due to safety concerns – instead staying in cars, on people’s couches, in public spaces, or remaining in unsafe relationships. If transitional housing funding shifts away from providers supporting women, many may lose access to safe, appropriate accommodation.
CEWH emphasizes that women’s specific needs must be considered to prevent unintended consequences as emergency and transitional housing policies are adjusted.
Read our media statement here
Jo Cribb on RNZ: women at risk in rough sleeping policies
CEWH Steering Committee member Jo Cribb, also Chair of Wellington Homeless Women’s Trust, spoke to RNZ about the rough sleeping funding. While the new support is positive, Jo warned that focusing only on rough sleepers misses the majority of women experiencing homelessness.
"We're going to see our homelessness problem exacerbated. It isn't solving the problem by focusing on one part of homelessness.”
"Women make up 50 percent - or more - of the homeless population, and they aren't the ones rough sleeping, so this is only really focusing on the ones you can see. The invisibility of women's homelessness should not be ignored," Jo said.
Jo stressed the importance of a gender-based lens in all housing policies and highlighted that without gender-disaggregated data, policymakers are “flying blind.”
Read the RNZ article here
Listen to the news bulletin, provided by RNZ here
He iti te mokoroa, nāna i kati te kahikatea
The grub may be small, but it cuts through the kahikatea
Vic, Kathie, Amanda, Helen, Jo, Caroline, and Jill
