Housing advocates and those supporting homeless youth say it’s now near impossible to get into emergency housing, and there are concerns homelessness has increased as a result of the government tightening the “gateway”.
National have weaponised emergency housing by slashing a billion in the budget and creating new thresholds to make most people ineligible for it.
Look at this horror story…
Women allegedly denied emergency housing while trying to flee domestic violence
The prime minister insists there is support for anyone trying to escape violence. But Stuff has heard that women leaving violent homes are being denied emergency housing.
…the new rules state that if you are considered to have contributed to your own homelessness, you can’t get emergency housing. In this case the scumbags decided the young woman escaping domestic violence had contributed to her homelessness so she couldn’t get help (until the media got involved and they suddenly changed their tune).
Look at what is actually happening…
‘Most people’ declined emergency housing, social services say
More people are being turned away from emergency housing, with “most people” not being offered a place, according to social agencies.
The rise comes at a time when the Government is praising the outcome of itsemergency housing initiative, which aimed to reduce the number of people in emergency housing such as motels.
However, Christchurch Methodist Mission executive director Jill Hawkey said the majority of people they help have been turned away from emergency housing – without being given a reason.
“We could count on one hand the number of people who have been offered emergency housing,” she said.
“Chris Bishop said in an interview that if people are homeless they could go to the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) and housing support would be available to them… we know that’s not true.”
When Chris Bishop is not getting boozed and becoming a right ‘Brooke Van Velden’ at the NZ Music Awards, he is demolishing Public Housing and finding new ways to refuse emergency housing for the homeless.
What a charmer.
Let’s be clear, this Government created new thresholds that allowed them to blame the person for the situation they were in so they could be removed from the lists and then Tama Potaka had the audacity to boast about falling emergency housing numbers…
In March 2024, the Government tightened criteria to access emergency motel accommodation.
It involved increasing scrutiny of whether people had “unreasonably contributed” to their immediate emergency housing need, whether they had taken reasonable efforts to access other housing options, and whether they had previously paid their emergency housing contribution.
At the end of January this year, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka announced the Government had achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75%, five years early. By March, it dropped by 84%.
…the number have only fallen because they created new ways to refuse assistance!
This Government is only focused on the short term, so they announce enormous cuts to social services knowing they will cause vast damage later when they hope to not be around.
They ignore the social carnage they are causing because they know in their heart of hearts that right wing voters don’t give a fuck about the homeless and they in fact blame the homeless for being homeless!
This is the spite and the malice in the souls of those who vote right.
It is so ugly what this Government have manufactured in a mere 18months all because voters were caught up in a tsunami of post covid misogyny towards Jacinda.
How can this cruelty by National be a backlash to Labour trying to protect us all during a once in a century pandemic?
You need to take a long hard look at yourself in the mirror Kiwi.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
“The true cruelty of National’s emergency housing cuts”
We must remain ever vigilant about the whole Right versus Left thing in that we, in fact, have neither.
We still have neoliberalism and yes, it is a thing. Neoliberalism is a beginners guide to autocratic fascism. Neoliberalism is an environment whithin criminals can flourish without the annoyance of getting caught then imprisoned. AO/NZ must de flea itself of neoliberalism before any conversations can be had re what’s fair and what isn’t re those most at risk.
Penguin has the book. Buy it. Read it. Come to know the enemy.
From the book by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison titled The Invisible Doctrine. The Secret History of Neoliberalism and how it came to control your life.
” We live under an ideology that preys on every aspect of our lives: our education and our jobs; our healthcare and our leisure; our mental wellbeing; the planet we inhabit – the very air we breathe. So pervasive has it become that, for most people, it has no name. It seems unavoidable, like a natural law. But trace back to its roots, and we discover that it is neither inevitable nor immutable. It was conceived, propagated and then concealed by the powerful few. It connects all of the biggest problems we face today: global heating, democratic backsliding, rising inequality, racism, gender violence, the mental health crisis and more. Our task is to bring it into the light – and to build a new system that is worth fighting for.
Neoliberalism. Do you know what it is? ”
https://www.penguin.co.nz/books/the-invisible-doctrine-9781802062694
Has anyone noticed how all the right wing-nuts are always really quiet when it comes to actual political comments, but as soon as there is a post about culture war bullshit or Israel they have sooooo much to say?