Policy
Labour announced a policy specifically aimed at addressing homelessness from the national government level in October 2011. At the time of authorship, this policy was not active, so no rate of homelessness correlated to the policy could be determined. Labour’s policy sets out to clarify the public’s understanding of homelessness, aiming to reduce stigma and misunderstanding by reiterating that homelessness is not a choice and is experienced by families, young people, people affected by mental health issues and family violence, as well as people released from prison. The policy recognises that Māori are over-represented among the homeless.[2] It sets out a plan to establish a Ministerial inquiry to create a complete picture of the state of homelessness in New Zealand. This will be done in conjunction with stakeholders including local government, NGOs, and iwi.[3] The result of this will be a strategy for interdepartmental action that focuses relevant departments on finding ways to prevent and intervene in homelessness.[4] This could be improved with an audit of current programmes and services to see how they affect homelessness. Labour would also align responsibility for homelessness with a single agency, which would lead policy on dealing with emergency and transitional accommodation. Presumably, this agency would then coordinate with NGOs to ensure a wide net of coverage is created and services are provided efficiently.
Programmes
Labour’s policy does not suggest immediately creating new programmes to end homelessness. It rather focuses on establishing clear lines of communication and responsibility between existing stakeholders. Labour’s policy could be improved if it included a proviso that programmes to end homelessness focus on assisting the homeless to realise the human capabilities set out in this report. This would ensure that the homeless are treated with dignity, and assisted to realise bodily integrity and the social bases of self-respect. Further, Labour should combine this focus with an emergency fund to be used to assist the homeless during events that disrupt normal city life. Funding of this nature should be combined with the capabilities approach, to focus on creating more emergency accommodation and case management during such events.