Prime Minister Christopher Luxon admits he didn't know there was no night shelter for rough sleepers in Auckland

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has admitted he did not know there was no night shelter in Auckland for people sleeping rough.

His weekly post-cabinet media conference followed revelations Ministry of Social Development staff have performance targets to reduce emergency housing numbers.

Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka has spoken with the Ministry of Social Development's boss following the revelations.

TVNZ's Q+A yesterday revealed MSD managers were assessed on keeping emergency housing numbers below the government's targets, and could be pulled into line if they were not.

Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson told Morning Report that was "incredibly distressing".

"[Staff are] perversely incentivised to say no," she said.

Potaka told Q+A he had not been aware of the performance targets, and could see how they could be interpreted as an incentive to deny people emergency housing.

He told RNZ on Monday he had since discussed it with MSD chief executive Debbie Power.

"How MSD manages the performance of its staff are operational matters for the agency," Potaka said.

"Emergency housing is intended to be a last resort."

Luxon backed Potaka's leadership, saying he set MSD's direction, while the ministry was responsible for delivering the government's targets.

"He's done an exceptionally good job getting kids out of emergency housing and into permanent, warm, dry homes, that's a really good thing," he said.

"You'd have to say, hand on heart, this is a better place to be than where we were when we started."

Luxon said ministry bosses were expected to meet targets without gaming them.

'Significant unmet need'

Robinson said government rhetoric that people who needed emergency housing could access it had been proven wrong.

She had been working at the mission for 13 years, and served as missioner for five of those.

"I have never seen the scale of rough sleeping like I have seen now," she said.

MSD told RNZ it expected staff to do all they could to support people in need, as well as supporting the government's targets.

When the coalition took office it aimed to reduce the number of households in emergency housing by 75 percent by 2030.

That target was met in January last year, and the latest MSD figures from May reported 471 households in emergency housing - down from 3141 in December 2023.

"It is important to note that the number of emergency housing grants in a region does not trigger performance management. This has not occurred and it is not the expectation set for our staff," said client service delivery general manager Graham Allpress.

"Where we decline emergency housing, we don't leave people with nowhere to go."

About 70 percent of people who were not granted emergency housing were offered other options like transitional housing, rent arrears assistance to help them stay in their current property or help with bond payments to get into a private rental, he said.

Robinson also pointed out MSD data given to Q+A showed each month for the past 16 months there were 1000 more inquiries to MSD about emergency housing, than there were formal applications submitted.

"There is this big question mark that 1000 applications a month, what is happening to those people?" Robinson said.

MSD told Q+A there were a number of possible reasons for that, including that some callers did not attend their appointments, some called more than once, and some could have their housing needs met in another way.

Changes to eligibility criteria in 2024 made it harder for people to access emergency housing.

Robinson feared the performance targets only added to the problem, as would the government's planned move on orders.

The proposed law would allow police officers to shift rough sleepers, who risked a fine or jail time if they did not obey.

"Move on orders, their moral, kind of, foundation, is based on a belief that there is genuine access to enough appropriate support," Robinson told Morning Report's John Campbell.

"Is there?" Campbell asked.

"No," Robinson replied.

Potaka told Q+A people who genuinely needed housing support could get it.

PM not aware there's no Auckland night shelter

The Auckland City Mission closes at 5pm, and there was no night shelter available in the city.

Luxon said he was not aware of that.

"But I'm comfortable with the government's programme, and the amount of investment that we've put into housing," he said.

"I'd put our housing record up against the previous government's any day of the week."

Earlier this month the government announced it would give community organisations another $14.5 million to support people experiencing homelessness.

That was on top of $10 million and an extra 300 Housing First places it granted last year, for people who have been sleeping rough for more than a year.

The government did not traditionally fund night shelters, Luxon said.

Housing Minister Chris Bishop said people who were new to sleeping rough and did not qualify for Housing First could seek help from a range of providers including the Mission and MSD.

"There's lots of it available, and if there needs to be more, we will fund it."

The problem was not money, but service coordination and programme effectiveness, Bishop said.

"That's what I am trying to fix as Housing Minister."

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said he did not believe MSD managers having such targets in their KPIs was appropriate.

"Absolutely not. And if this were happening in my government, I would expect my ministers to be across that, and I'd expect them to be making it clear to MSD that that's completely unacceptable," he said.

Hipkins accused the government of prioritising "booting people out of emergency accommodation" over providing support to those who desperately needed it.

"They're crowing about the fact that there's fewer people in emergency accommodation at a time when we've got more people living rough on the streets. That shows you everything that you need to know about how this government's priorities are all wrong."

He had not, however, looked at whether Labour would fund a night shelter in Auckland, saying he was "happy to consider it", but his priority would be stopping homelessness and getting people into sustainable accommodation.