Congratulations to the Government and our new Ministers

Housing First Auckland is pleased to see ending homelessness and using Housing First is a priority for our new coalition Government.

We congratulate the new Minister and Associate Minster of Housing and Urban Development, respectively, Hon Phil Twyford and Hon Jenny Salesa.

Homelessness is a complex issue. Its causes range from factors such as policy settings and economic conditions, immigration, access to health and social services, discrimination, family violence, employment, poverty and poor health.

What we know is that when it comes to ending homelessness, it’s the Housing First approach that works.

And it’s even more powerful when included in Government policy and combined with a National Housing Strategy – as evidenced in Finland and Canada.

While it’s early days for our Housing First Collective – our results are starting to speak for themselves.

Our message is simple and consistent.

Let’s look at putting Housing First into Housing policy, so that we can build on the momentum and results we have started to see in both Auckland and Hamilton. And let’s work together as a sector to develop a National Housing Strategy so that we can prevent homelessness from happening in the first place.

Together, we can do this – we can end homelessness right across Aotearoa so that it is rare, brief and non-recurring.