Hundreds of beds would be needed for rough sleepers given move-on orders

Two hundred beds would be needed to give rough sleepers in central Auckland somewhere to go if they were given move-on orders, says the head of the city mission.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon revealed on Monday that he was not aware that there was no night shelter in central Auckland, but the government is still pushing ahead with plans for its move-on orders.

Legislation now at select committee would give police the power to order people as young as 14 to move elsewhere or face a possible jail sentence if they were being disorderly, begging, rough sleeping or attempting to inhabit a public place.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins in his Tuesday Morning Report interview promised to end "the criminalisation of homelessness" if his party won power.

But Luxon said on Tuesday he was "comfortable" including rough sleepers in the orders.

"We need to make sure that people coming into our cities do not feel intimidated, that there isn't disruption, that there isn't disturbance... I think we've got the balance right, I trust our police to operationalise that sensitively and well," he said.

Auckland City Mission's chief executive Helen Robinson told Checkpoint the idea rough sleepers could be subjected to those orders left her "distressed, concerned, agitated, worried, confused and upset".

She said the question of where people would go when the mission closed at 5pm every day was still the key issue.

"It's really important, irrespective of move-on orders, that everyone has a place to go.

"If someone is moved at at 6pm, where will they go? There literally is no option in central city Auckland at six o'clock tonight if people needed support."

She said rough sleeping was at a scale and level she had not seen in the 13 years she had worked at the mission.

"There is significant genuine unmet need and it leaves us all with that question, including me: where will people go?"

The mission does have 20 beds available for emergency use, but Robinson said they would need 200 beds for central Auckland - and about 1000 for all of Auckland - to meet the current need.

"That would be the kind of numbers we would be talking about, of people who need to access that kind of support."

Robinson acknowledged the good faith of many ministers who had been working on the issue - "I have yet to meet a minister who wants people to rough sleep" - but she said it was important that decision makers had a good sense of what was going on.

"What we know is that many people have nowhere to go, and we are calling for a reality where everybody has somewhere to go and particularly in the context of the move on orders.

"And I know New Zealanders join me in that, including the ministers."