Housing Minister Chris Bishop says he’s reluctantly “open” to changing emergency housing eligibility rules as providers report rising rough sleeping and homelessness.
He said the Government was seeking “urgent advice” to address the issue.
But Bishop’s comments come despite assiduously rejecting assertions that his tightening of emergency housing eligibility rules has kicked more people onto the streets.
Asked in a Q+A interview, the minister said he was “open” to tweaking a clause which required applicants to prove they hadn’t contributed to their own housing need.
“I’m open to it. I’m not foreclosing the option of doing that,” he said. “I don’t really want to do it. I’ll do it if I think it would make a difference, but I don’t want to go back to a situation where the large-scale use of motels for emergency housing is where we get to.”
He added, when pressed further: “We’ve made it easier to get out, but we’ve made it harder to get in, and that was a deliberate policy choice.
The number of people sleeping rough in Auckland in May this year is almost double that of September last year. (Source: 1News)
“I’m open to some tweaks and changes, but the underlying issue is one we’ve got to grapple with, which is how have we ended up with people who sleep rough on the streets. It’s not a money issue, because we spend half a billion a year in this space already as a government. It’s a systems issue, and it’s a coordination problem.
“That’s one of the things I’ve been grappling with over the last couple of weeks with [minister] Tama Potaka, so you can expect some more action on that soon.”
Asked repeatedly, Bishop did not accept that the Government’s changes to emergency housing eligibility had been one of the factors contributing to a rise in homelessness.
“It’s not what the official analysis shows either, which is the homelessness insights report we released actually says it’s not possible to draw conclusions around that increase based on policy changes,” he told Q+A.
June’s report found the growth in number of New Zealanders living without shelter had appeared to rise faster than population over the past year.
‘Urgent advice’ sought on more people sleeping rough
The Housing Minister said he was waiting on “urgent advice” on the issue.
“We’ve got a problem when it comes to rough sleeping, and I’ve spent, you know, much of the last couple of weeks talking to the City Mission in Auckland and other providers in other parts of the country,” he said.
Some employed people are making an active decision to skip renting to save money by living on the street. (Source: 1News)
“We’ve asked for some urgent advice about what we can do, but it’s worth remembering that this is a long-running problem for New Zealand.”
Bishop’s comments came weeks after Associate Housing Minister Potaka acknowledged that “many” had linked the tightening of eligibility to rising homelessness.
Potaka said some providers had described the policy as “very, very harsh”, although, like Bishop, he demurred when pressed on whether the Government’s policies were to blame for reports of more people being out on the streets.
The Government introduced tougher eligibility criteria for emergency housing last year.
People seeking support would face greater scrutiny, more requirements for information, and to prove they hadn’t themselves “contributed” to their needs for emergency housing.
Potaka is an Associate Housing Minister (Social Housing), Minister for Māori Development, and Minister of Conservation. (Source: Q and A)
At the time, officials warned the Government that the changes risked putting more people into situations of rough sleeping.
Bishop, a senior Cabinet minister, was also asked in his Q+A interview about the number of construction jobs lost in the past year, the value of the National Party’s proposed Northern Expressway project, and possible asset sales.
He also defended the Government’s changes to electoral laws to close enrolments before advance voting started. Later as National’s campaign chairperson, Bishop also defended the poor preferred prime minster polling of leader Christopher Luxon.
For the full interview, watch the video above
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air
