Auckland Council patrollers try to wake up a rough sleeper. Photo: RNZ / Finn Blackwell
A rapid escalation in homelessness has seen Auckland Council's Community Committee send a 'please help' letter to the government.
The committee has recorded a 53 percent rise in people sleeping rough in the city over four months - coinciding with a sharp decrease in emergency housing numbers.
Data from Auckland Council's Community Impact team shows the number of people known to be living in cars, parks or on the streets rose from 426 people in September to 653 people in January.
Support agencies told RNZ their services are under much more demand than six months ago.
"It's a lot of pressure on us as a team," Auckland City Mission general manager of housing Natasha Mackie said.
"When people are in these situations they're very vulnerable, and often not accessing services like healthcare, they're often short of food," she said.
"We've also seen a significant increase in people attending our community meal every day... and a 20 percent increase of people attending our Haeata [hot meal service] from the year before."
Housing First Auckland programme manager Rami Alrudani said outreach workers at his organisation were grappling with "more and more homelessness every day".
"That homelessness is actually beyond what they are funded to, and beyond the capacity for them to actually be able to respond. So it's really a significant problem," he said.
Alrudani said rising unemployment and a shortage of housing appeared to driving the increase, along with the government's crackdown on emergency housing.
Last year, the Ministry of Social Development introduced stricter entry criteria for emergency housing, and new requirements that make it more difficult to stay.
The number of Aucklanders in emergency housing tumbled from 735 households last January to 45 this January, according to figures on the Ministry's website.
In January, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka said 80 percent of those leaving were moving to social, transitional, or private housing.
But Alrudaini said others appear to be winding up on the street.
"People on the streets are telling us that they've been excluded. From [emergency housing] they've been excluded even to access.. sometimes in certain situations, transitional housing or other options," he said.
MSD said there are many other ways it can help applicants for emergency housing - and about 85 percent of those who apply do receive some form of housing support.
But Mackie said people's options were "very limited".
She said private boarding houses and lodges were typically "very expensive, taking up most of a benefit".
People were prioritising food and other basic needs, and going without a house, she said.
"They're relying on whanau or a friend's couch, they're sleeping in cars. Or rough sleeping."
In a letter to Minister for Social Development and Employment Louise Upston and Minister of Housing Chris Bishop last week, Auckland Council's Community Committee expressed "deep concern" about the rise in homelessness.
It asked for an increase in funding for people with acute housing needs.
Auckland Councillor and Community Committee chair Angela Dalton said the government desperately needs to honour its commitments to vulnerable people "and provide them with a roof over their heads".
"With social housing being cut and social housing programmes being stopped, this situation is going to get worse. We as a council take very seriously our responsibility to help people who live in Auckland, and we won't walk away from that. We will be at the table coordinating with other services," she said.
Dalton said the committee wants to know - in more specifics - where Aucklanders leaving emergency housing have gone, especially those who have been evicted.
The letter stated "reliable, comprehensive data is crucial for understanding the scale of the crisis and ensuring policy responses are evidence-based and effective".
"We need to have a serious look at the people who are that have no housing, what is their situation? How many people with a disability, or mental health issues, or victims of family violence are living on the street?" Dalton said.
The Ministry of Social Development said it encouraged anyone sleeping rough to come and talk to them about the assistance they may be eligible for.
"Rough sleeping is potentially influenced by multiple factors, including economic pressures, rental market conditions, and the availability of long-term housing solutions."
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