Government exceeds housing target to end homelessness in New Zealand

The Government has exceeded its target to have 1,500 additional places for the homeless this winter, Housing and Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford announced today.

"As we had feared, homelessness was worse than ever this winter, with record numbers of people coming forward for help," Phil Twyford said.

"It's going to take a concerted effort over many years to end homelessness. The housing crisis was created over a decade and isn't going to be fixed overnight.

"We know that winter is the worst time to be homeless. That's why in May our Government announced a $37 million investment to help those in urgent need of housing over the colder months.

"The Ministry of Social Development, in partnership with community housing providers, have pulled out all the stops this winter, resulting in:

• 684 additional transitional housing places, 268 above target,
• 33 additional Housing First households placed into permanent housing,
• 1047 additional public housing tenancies.

"The public also heard our Government's call to help us house the vulnerable this winter. Members of the public, private landlords and landowners, NGOs, iwi and developers came forward with 380 offers of housing.

"That's why we are already planning for winter 2019 and are full steam ahead with our plans to build even more transitional houses and 6,400 new public housing places around the country over the next four years," Phil Twyford said.

(With inputs from New Zealand Government press release)