Increasing homelessness requires increased political commitment to end homelessness – Greens

The Green Party is calling on the Government to commit to solutions to end homelessness, following the National Homelessness Data Project’s latest report which shows that, in every area, rates of homelessness are either unchanged or getting worse.

“Make no mistake, increases in homelessness are a direct result of this Government’s cruel decision to make emergency housing tougher to access and to cut public housing builds,” says Green Party housing spokesperson, Tamatha Paul.

“Auckland homelessness has more than doubled between 2024 and September 2025. Rather than funding solutions that work, Christopher Luxon’s Government is exploring broken solutions like criminalising homeless people. It costs more than $150,000 a year to lock somebody up. This is money that could be used to get people the housing and healthcare that they deserve to break cycles of poverty.

“Frontline organisations are clear that the Government’s meagre efforts to address the accelerating homelessness crisis haven’t made a dent. The new ‘Housing First’ places have been a drop in the ocean, and frontline organisations haven’t seen any real change after Work and Income case managers were given increased discretion.

“The Greens would address rising homelessness by tackling the actual issue: a lack of support to get people who need homes into homes. We would reverse successive governments’ cruel restrictions on emergency housing access, build tens of thousands of new public homes, and fund community housing organisations to provide housing and the wraparound support that people need.

“How many scathing reports does the Government need to face before it seriously addresses homelessness in Aotearoa?,” asks Tamatha Paul.

NOTES TO EDITORS

• This briefing shows that homelessness is not just an urban issue: homelessness is spreading beyond city centres into suburbs as people move from one place to another.

• This briefing also comes as new polling shows 78 per cent of New Zealanders want the Government to build state housing at scale, including 71 per cent of National voters.