The government needs to stop burying their heads in the sand over the housing crisis.
That's the conclusion of the cross-party inquiry into homelessness, which released its final report today. The report has been released to coincide with World Homeless Day today.
Labour, the Green Party and the Māori Party are calling on the Government to immediately adopt the 20 recommendations set out in today's Ending Homelessness in New Zealand report.
Notable recommendations include:
*Rolling out Housing First as the primary response to severe homelessness.
*Increasing the state housing stock.
*Introducing systemic fix to the housing crisis: Build more affordable houses, reduce the cost of building a home, and tackle speculation in the property market.
*Creating a national strategy to end homelessness.
'It's unacceptable that over 40,000 New Zealanders are homeless today. Labour believes that New Zealand is a stronger country, a better country, when everyone has a decent place to live,” says Labour Party Leader Andrew Little.
'We know how to fix this problem. The ball is now in National's court. Will they act or will they continue to bury their heads in the sand?”
The inquiry opened on July 20 this year, receiving written submissions and holding five hearings across the country.
Hundreds of people who are homeless, those who were once homeless, those working with the homeless and concerned New Zealanders made submissions. After consideration by the three parties holding the inquiry, these have been developed into the final report, released today at a launch event at Parliament.
The cross-party hearings panel is made up of Labour's housing spokesperson Phil Twyford, the Green Party's social housing spokesperson Marama Davidson, and Māori Party co-leader Marama Fox.
The inquiry was launched by the Labour, Green and Māori Parties after National MPs turned down Opposition requests for a Parliamentary select committee inquiry into the issue.
Tauranga National Party MP Simon Bridges was open to the suggestions outlined by the inquiry.
"Ending homelessness is a priority for our Government. On the face of it, many of the recommendations appear to endorse our comprehensive plan to address the housing problem.
"If any of the recommendations are new or useful, we would consider taking them on."
2 comments
The problem is real....
Posted on 10-10-2016 12:06 | By Jimmy Ehu
but I take umbrage at the issue being turned into a " business " , with groups using the problem to obtain grants, then minus the myriad of administrative costs little reaching those in need!, many are magnifying the issue for their own gain, and that is just plain wrong!!!, one problem, so one agency to deal with it, and one funding pool, not many based on race or religion, all with hands in the " cookie jar" how greedy are some to feed on the plight of others?, how many could have been helped with the cost of all these meetings?, what hotels did they stay at, and how where they fed?, and more importantly who paid ?.
Good on the Maori party
Posted on 10-10-2016 19:05 | By Merlin
They had the guts to come and discuss this situation even though they are a Government support partner.Did not see the other puppets( Act, United Future) or the government to have a full cross party go at this.Failure is had to take I guess for some of those in power.0 and the Government prepared to get a consensus of the best way to solve this problem.
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