Number of under 16s sleeping rough ‘much larger than we’d first anticipated’
Young people are sleeping on the streets and in cars as a youth homelessness support service says the problem is getting worse.
Auckland-based Kick Back has released its first State of the Street report, which it says is an SOS to the government and community at large.
The report said 62 percent of young people turning to the organisation for help were under 19 years old.
Sixteen and 17 year olds made up 20 percent, and 17 percent were aged 15 or under.
Everyone in the homelessness sector told the Government that their revised thresholds for Emergency Housing would create a tsunami of homelessness.
Everyone in the homelessness sector said cutting $20million from food banks would make those homeless more desperate.
Everyone in the homelessness sector said cutting back on community outreach programmes for the homeless would mean those homeless had no access to off ramps via wrap around services.
Despite everyone telling them this, National did it all anyway resulting in an obscene spike in homelessness to the point their poverty, addiction and mental health issues explode shamefully across our streets in a way that embarrasses us in front of the Tourists.
So embarrassed are they by the realities of their policy cruelty they now put forward a solution to simply arrest the homeless.
Firstly, shouldn’t National, ACT and NZF voters be confronted with the grim reality of their social policies as they walk around?
Secondly, shouldn’t the Government be heavily, heavily, heavily criticised for promoting criminalisation of the poverty they themselves have manufactured?
Where does Chris Luxon, who is one of the richest Politicians in NZ, who got an $8000 rates reduction for his million dollar batch on Waiheke and who has personally profited $600 000 from flipping property after he changed the rules, that Chris Luxon, where does he get off arresting the homeless that he has created?
Merry Christmas – this year Santa has been mugged by WINZ and evicted by Kainga Ora.
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Useless parents come from a useless society, getting rid of alcohol and systems that exploit workers so that they don’t have a realistic option of a stable future would go a long way to reducing social problems. We live in a world with free choice however, the liberal option is that what consenting adults do in their home is none of our business (which I tend to agree with) is sacrosanct it seems while anyone suggesting that biology is the obvious way to tell male from female, that women should not be treated as sex objects and marriage should be based on love not lust is treated as some sort of throwback to an era that no longer exists.
If the billions that banks extract (more each year than treaty settlements) was able to be used within NZ things would be a lot better also.
Steve, forget this mug he’s bootlicking honky redneck bottom feeder
The level of homelessness now is an absolute national disgrace! How could any ruling party allow this to happen under their watch? There will always be a degree of homelessness but not in this manufactured, irresponsible, deliberate way. We all know there are insufficient jobs, food, and affordable accommodation. Society, as we knew it, has completely broken down and this sorted bunch couldn’t give a damn! So long as they are housed, fed – with plenty left over, they simply pretend it away โ someone else’s problem! Except it is the sorted’s greed for more, that has ultimately brought so many to their knees! So what are THEY going to do about it โ banish them, fine them, relocate them out of sight out of mind, and get on with their selfish lives. Oh to be so cruel, shallow and uncaring โ how have so many of you become less than human? Yes IR time for all charities, especially the incredibly rich churches, to be charged a tax and made to contribute to our economy, thus supporting those on much lower pay! And don’t start me on the extreme โracismโ in NZ โ it’s abominable, unacceptable and will trip them up in the end. Maori were here first โ we are the interlopers โ surely voters aren’t that stupid that they need this spelt out! There is sufficient room and enough wealth for all of us. HANG YOUR HEADS IN SHAME!
How about the crown give all our land back im right then we won’t need your Iwi tax or maybe the crown can give us market value for the land they stole, a top up.
correct cant wait for that to happen
How about the crown give all our land back im right then we won’t need your Iwi tax or maybe the crown can give us market value for the land they stole, a top up.
Jacinda Ardern took personal responsibility to end child poverty in New Zealand yet it worsened under her watch and Chippies watch.
And she homed the homeless in less than perfect situations but they were homed and the motel owners made millions .Then along come Potaka the potatoe Maori and throws them onto the street and says look we no longer need all those houses so Bishop stopped new ones being built So mr Potatoe Maori where are all those people now .
A more useful and simpler change would be to free up consenting and building regulations for Mฤori-owned buildings on Mฤori-owned lands.
THERE YOU GO ANOTHER FALSE IMPICATION ASSUMING ALL OF THE HOMLESS ARE MAORI .Earlier this year I was collecting for the heart foundation outside a small supermarket in Te Kuiti with a farmers wife from the coast .She was a down to earth lady and after a while she made the statement that it was the poorer people who donated not the well off .I had also noted the same thing and pointed out several homeless people to her that donated to our fund raising bucket .She said she was embarassed that the ford ranger brigade walked on past looking the other way even though she knew them and said a cherry hello .Agood % of the homeless we saw were infact pakeha and clearly had mental health issues and had been thrown out onto the streets .
The local IWI is building 40 homes for the homeless in TeKuiti .But since they made that announcement the government has been hard out selling the remaining homes they own in the town so there will now be another cohort of homeless .I note the same is happening up in Whangarei at present the biggest number of homes listed there are state houses .
Its shit people like you that make it acceptable .How is it ok for any person young or old to be living on the street,hungry ,unemployed or under employed .We constantly see people on here saying we feed 40 million people .What a fucken lie that is when we dont or wont feed our own population .We have become a society that has forgotten what society means .
When I was a kid my dad fell seriously ill and was in hospital for a long time .My mum had to look after 6 kids on her own and there was no sickness benefit to help her out .We never missed one single meal or went without clothing etc because the community got in and helped her out ,even driving her the 25km into the hospital to visit .
Now days people will just shrug and say go to WINZ .
This simply not true ‘always been homeless kids’ nonsense in the sixties and seventies there were not homeless people, we were a much fairer egalitarian society and then that bastard roger the dodger changed the rules and in a Labour government. Before that there was no homelessness. Make dumb comments about parents is so wrong.