Housing is a human right

Sam Tsemberis is an expert at getting homeless people off the streets, compassionately. His secret? Giving them a place to live. Finlay Macdonald sat down with Dr Tsemberis while he was in New Zealand recently and asked him more about Housing First and how it works.

A new initiative aimed at ending chronic homelessness in Auckland has officially kicked off. Today Social Housing Minister Amy Adams and Auckland Mayor Phil Goff launched Housing First Auckland, which aims to house 472 chronically homeless Aucklanders and provide wrap-around services to address the causes of their homelessness.

Dr Sam Tsemberis, the world’s leading expert in Housing First is in New Zealand working with Housing First Auckland, a collective of five services contracted by the Ministry of Social Development to work with chronically homeless people in Auckland.