Why Care?

Why Care about Homelessness?

Homelessness means people are without shelter and security. It is tied to factors including poverty, drug and alcohol addiction, and social marginalization, all of which damage people’s well-being or human flourishing.[1] Despite efforts to address homelessness, Auckland is home to approximately 180 to 300 rough sleepers.[2] The existence of homelessness in New Zealand means that the social welfare system of the country has failed to implement an acceptable minimum standard of living for all residents of New Zealand. While this work will focus on Auckland, homelessness is a wider problem facing the country. Goals to improve the lives of the homeless exist at the local and national level. However, homelessness persists.

The Mayoral Drive bridge provided shelter to several of Auckland’s homeless population prior to the Rugby World Cup. 

Part of the problem is that different organizations and levels of governance address different symptoms of homelessness in an uncoordinated manner. In Auckland, national and local government work with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to attempt to assist the homeless into housing. However, the current arrangement has some critical disjunctions in organization. This project will explore how different locations of homeless policy (local; national; governmental; non-governmental) can and should interact to move from short-term needs and measures to long-term solutions to the problem of homelessness. Short-term changes to the city’s social landscape can create particular problems for homeless people that policy should be able to respond to. The Rugby World Cup of 2011 is one pertinent example of such a change that affects the homeless.[3] This website will explore how the Auckland Council can create long-term homeless policy that is able to respond to short-term needs and changes to needs, and how this then fits into central government policy regarding people’s basic needs.

The core policy problem is: How can policy work to respond to the short and long terms needs of those experiencing homelessness, while working to end homelessness (and respecting human dignity)? How can the different policy actors involved in this policy problem best work together for these goals?

In order to address this problem, this document uses comparative institutional analysis to search for options for improving Auckland’s homeless policy. It explores the state of current research in the area, and then compares homeless policies in Auckland, Long Beach (Los Angeles), and Wellington, as well as policy proposed by Steve Richards in a paper to the New Zealand Coalition to End Homelessness, and Labour’s proposed national policy.[1] These are compared in terms of their ability to negotiate relationships between different actors, the ways in which their programmes can respond to the short and long term needs of the homeless, and whether they foster the central capabilities of the homeless. Ultimately, the approach to homelessness undertaken in Long Beach, Los Angeles, should be combined with recommendations made by Steve Richards in a report to the New Zealand Coalition to End Homelessness to create a better way forward for homeless policy in New Zealand. The clearest finding for this work is that without coordination and commitment at the central governmental level, lines of responsibility for homelessness remain unclear and hinder the development of a coordinated approach to addressing homelessness in New Zealand.

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[1] Steve Richards, “Homelessness in Aotearoa: Issues and Recommendations,” (Greater Wellington Region: New Zealand Coalition to End Homelessness, 2009), 24.