National fails on homelessness

Last winter, the government faced a homelessness crisis, with people living in cars or bedding down in maraes because they could not afford rising rents and the government had failed in their duty to provide a state house to those in desperate need. This winter, its going to be worse:

The number of people registered as urgently needing housing has doubled in the past two years.

The Ministry of Social Development's Housing Register shows people in the at-risk category with severe and persistent housing needs have risen from a low of 1641 in June 2015 to a new high of 3422 in March this year, the latest available figure.

A further 1433 on the Priority B list have serious housing needs.

Emergency housing providers and support groups say government measures to tackle the problem have fallen short.

And the homeless now include people with jobs and families, who just can't make ends meet in National's low wage, landlord economy. Its fundamentally indecent, not to mention a massive failure. But its what happens when you have a government which wants to get out of the state housing business, rather than ensuring that every New Zealander has a roof over their heads.