Analysis: Why it's wrong for politicians to dodge questions about homelessness

Analysis: In Auckland today there are just shy of 600 people sleeping rough, while the number of immediate overnight beds available is just 35, according to the best available data.

The latest Homelessness Insights Report from March is a bleak read, despite many of the jaw-dropping statistics having improved.

Auckland Council's data shows there were 706 people known to be sleeping in cars, streets and local parks in January, which was higher than the 653 in January last year but considerably down from the September 2025 peak of 940.

The immediate access transitional housing pilot programme is currently the only one offering prompt shelter to the homeless without overly specific boxes needing to be ticked.

New contracts are currently being negotiated with the two Auckland providers - Auckland City Mission and Kāhui Tū Kaha - and it's expected once they're finalised, Auckland will have closer to 60 immediate access beds available.

While the government announced $14.5 million of support for rough sleepers last month, the funding is specific to outreach and support services and doesn't provide any additional beds.

The outreach work is important - those are the people who have relationships with the homeless and spend days, weeks, and in some cases months convincing rough sleepers there are services and organisations they can visit and talk to who could potentially help get them into a home.

But for many, the deeply held mistrust of government or social workers makes that job incredibly difficult.

There are other roadblocks too. Many of the programmes the homeless can connect with have criteria and eligibility requirements they simply don't, and may struggle to ever meet.

Take Housing First - a government programme that ministers have spent much of the week pointing to as a way to get people into warm, dry homes.

To qualify, a person has to be chronically homeless - specifically, they have to have been sleeping rough for at least 12 months over the past three years to even get a look in.

Then there's Rapid Rehousing, which ministers have also cited over the past week as a programme designed to help people quickly exit homelessness and get back into permanent housing.

Criteria for that programme requires people to need "low-to-medium levels of support to access and maintain permanent housing". That's a big barrier for anyone who has spent time living on the street, when it's well-documented many homeless have high and complex needs that require intensive support.

Emergency housing is also available and has no bed limit or funding cap. The coalition government has set out to largely get rid of this, with ministers adamant places like motels are no place for people to live.

As part of that effort, it set a target early in its term to reduce the number of households in emergency housing by 75 percent by the end of 2029 - a target Labour leader Chris Hipkins this week said he would scrap.

That target was actually achieved by the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) last year after the government also tightened the criteria for accessing emergency housing.

More recently, MSD managers have had performance measures related to reducing the number of people in emergency housing - a practice described by Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson as a perverse incentive to decline people help.

When it comes to helping those most in need, placing them straight into housing without the necessary support is often not the answer and can end up being dangerous not only to them, but their neighbours too.

There have been examples, and Social Housing Minister Tama Potaka pointed to one this week on Morning Report, where someone was plucked off the street and put in immediate access housing and ended up torching not only their own unit, but a range of others too.

MSD chief executive Debbie Power told RNZ this week her managers were doing the job the government of the day had asked of them. She was adamant anyone who was eligible who sought emergency housing would be granted it.

Eligibility is necessary in a ministry responsible for billions of dollars and accountable to the taxpayer - but it's also the block for so many seeking help.

On Monday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon wanted to talk at his post-Cabinet press conference about his government's fast-track policy. He wasn't there to be questioned repeatedly about what his coalition was doing to help the many hundreds of rough sleepers in towns and cities across the country.

His disinterest extended to him refusing to answer RNZ's six attempts at whether he knew there was no night shelter for rough sleepers to drop into in Auckland. He eventually got there when TVNZ asked the same question for a seventh time - he personally didn't know that was the case.

Homelessness is complex for those enduring it and those tasked with trying to solve it. Avoiding talking about it as another miserable winter hits is not a solution.