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Homelessness up by 58% in Auckland

Written By: - Date published: 5:35 pm, June 7th, 2025 - 8 comments
Categories: auckland supercity, benefits, chris bishop, chris hipkins, Christopher Luxon, crime, housing, labour, local government, national, national/act government, prisons, same old national, Social issues - Tags: , , , , , ,

Excerpt reposted from Mountain Tui

It’s hard to tell what’s worse: the National government persisting in prioritising money and non-existent1 “growth” over lives and well-being, or the many people that believe this is the way to succeed.

Homelessness spiked up 53% over a few short months in NZ’s major metropolitan city, Auckland in March. Now it’s at 58% as the video shows –

And although Luxon denied his ‘“success” at driving down emergency housing numbers was to blame, and lamented media not praising it, the numbers don’t lie.

The government threw out 94% of those in Auckland emergency housing by January 2025, “saving” itself $1bn over 4 years.

Homelessness spiked so strongly in a few short months, that in March 2025, Auckland Council sent a ‘please explain and please help’ letter to central government, urging the government to come clean and tell Council exactly where those leaving emergency housing are going.

Auckland Council:

“Reliable, comprehensive data is crucial for understanding the scale of the crisis and ensuring policy responses are evidence-based and effective…..

With social housing being cut and social housing programmes being stopped, this situation is going to get worse.”

Housing First Auckland programme manager Rami Alrudani:

“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.”

It’s clear the National government does not care.

Last week at Question Time, Luxon boasted about how his government is doing a “fantastic” job in housing, and wouldn’t even acknowledge the spike in homelessness, saying:

“This is a government that’s incredibly proud of its housing record.”

The problem is not confined to Auckland’s 58% rise.

Wellington has experienced a 40% hike in homelessness.

Tauranga City Council notes homelessness has spiked in its city too, as 30 councils around the country form a support group to tackle the rising problem.

National Party, on the other hand, are ignoring the issue, and making it all but impossible to get into emergency housing, with applicants calling it a “trap” and the large majority of applicants declined help.

Last week, Christchurch’s Methodist Mission executive director Jill Hawkey said most of those they help have been turned away from emergency housing – without being given a reason –

“We could count on one hand the number of people who have been offered emergency housing.”

It gets worse.

New State House Builds Effectively Halting

Last year, Chris Bishop’s Kainga Ora “turnaround plan” translated to 400 net new social homes a year, and then caps i.e. stops state builds from 2026 – even as the social housing waitlist hovers at ~20,000.

Luxon was ironically in Parliament lambasting Labour on this too – deriding Labour’s housing track record when Labour oversaw and built thousands of quality homes a year – closing the 14,000 to 16,000 housing gap left over by John Key’s government.

Labour dreamt big and that delivery was solid on a 25% debt ratio, leveraging it to a 100% asset base, now worth $70bn.

National only ever planned a miniscule fraction of that effort (possibly 0.05)4, and capping inventory5 from 2026 means they’ve given up, and are handing it all to the profit-seeking private market instead.6

The message is clear: under-delivery is acceptable in New Zealand, as long as long as no-one dreams big and controls the populist narrative.

Beneficiary sanctions

Finally, National’s much touted benefit beneficiary sanctions, which experts warn will only exacerbate problems, may increase homelessness and poverty even more. Under one sanction, the money card, the government won’t allow the money cards to be used for rent.

The government doesn’t even expect their various sanctions to help people into work i.e. it seems purely ideological and punitive in nature.

Where do we as a society feel this will all go?

The answer is crime, domestic violence, mental health, homelessness, unemployment, and cumulative, increasing costs to our society and culture.

It’s the American model, born in Kiwi land.

So where is this government investing around that?

Prison, of course

I’ve previously written, and warned about the new mega prison National hired international multinationals to build, as well as Luxon’s ‘money is no obstacle for us’ stance when it comes to prisons.

The Waikeria prison is now open and expected to be full soon. Criminologists have repeatedly told the government that based on empirical evidence and experience, these mega prisons merely harden criminals, and create “crime schools”, while Sir Peter Gluckman noted imprisonment only increases generational crime and problem youth.

But – investors will profit – as National pours in nearly $2bn a year on corrections, and plans to exceed record7 prison numbers by 2026.

Is this the society we want to build?

It appears that for some, unfortunately, the answer is, yes.

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8 comments on “Homelessness up by 58% in Auckland ”

  1. Muttonbird 1
    7 June 2025 at 7:13 pm

    Good post, thanks Mountain Tui.

    Another story from the crucible of motel emergency housing, Rotorua:

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/rotorua-homeless-camp-outside-salvation-army-causing-local-business-to-lose-money/5T3F2UDQ4REDHHO5K2PGYAZ4WQ/#google_vignette

    I wonder whether Rotorua businesses and tourism operators are finding conditions better after the bust up of emergency housing by Tama Potaka.

    Reply
    • tc 1.1
      8 June 2025 at 10:55 am

      Yes quite the useful tool Minister Potaka has become in delivering their housing portfolio ambitions.

      Professional and driven, expect to see him pushed out front as winter bites and the charity funding ends as they craft a re-election strategy using fresher faces.

      Reply
  2. Patricia Bremner 2
    7 June 2025 at 9:55 pm

    Here the tale was, "They are bringing problems in from other towns".

    Now we hear homelessness is up 58%.

    So no emergency housing?

    House building is stopped ?

    Not much funding for charities?

    A local shopkeeper called the homeless "Dogs".

    We have an austere Government, removing capital from the system, and insolvencies are up.

    Like Muldoon's "Light at the end of the tunnel"

    Or John Key's "Rock Star economy"

    We have Luxon's "Growth Growth" and "Green Shoots"

    This is an inhumane Government saying they are doing one thing while doing the opposite. imo

    Further, we have questionable polls from questionable a pollster to back their lies.

    Propaganda is telling a lie over and over 'till it becomes accepted as truth.

    Reply
  3. Polly Tomson 3
    8 June 2025 at 10:47 am

    We shouldnt expect anything else from this collision govt….They lead the country down a similar path when they were in power for 9 yrs…all hospitals were left in disrepair and now they are doing it again …all economic focus is on overseas investments who are not good for any country they get from our govt tax free incentives and they get to send all their profits back to their home countries and NZ gets nothing but tax hikes food hikes no hospitals, cheap ferries, more children living in poverty, homelessness and high unemployment….. NOTHING no growth ….. ZILTCH….

    Reply
  4. Psycho Milt 4
    8 June 2025 at 11:45 am

    For National and ACT, society is a meritocracy, which they know on the basis of "If society is run by people like myself, then clearly it must be a meritocracy because we are the best people." Which means that anyone homeless, jobless or otherwise in need is merely suffering the consequences of their own lack of merit and no particular regard or duty of care is owed them.

    That might be justifiable (albeit with a merciless lack of empathy) if society actually were a meritocracy, but it isn't, and electing people who believe it is can't possibly have good results.

    Reply
  5. georgecom 5
    8 June 2025 at 12:47 pm

    Luxon says his government 'has a lot of work ahead of him' regards homelessness. Thing is though Chris L, you are doing bugger all of that 'hard work'

    Reply
  6. Patricia Bremner 6
    8 June 2025 at 1:21 pm

    "If they build 14001 new homes they will do 1 better than Labour." (McNulty)

    "Luxon says" several meaningless phrases about what they intend, but the opposite seems to eventuate.

    Lately the CoC has hit a few bumps. The more we know Luxon Willis and Seymour, the less we seem to like them or their ideas. Their short cuts have seen massive submissions.

    How many times can he get away with

    "That is not what I would say." or "I am shocked" "We are working hard" angry

    After trying for a fourth time to get his R.S.Bill through, Seymour “Like rust, never sleeps’, so we have to sleep with one eye open..

    Reply

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