Support for Dunedin’s homeless people is now ‘‘almost impossible’’ to access, which is increasing desperation antisocial behaviour and pressure on the city’s night shelter, advocates say.
Speaking ahead of the reopening of the Dunedin’s newly expanded night shelter, its manager David McKenzie said the situation in the city was getting tougher.
‘‘We are definitely seeing more people not falling, but being pushed through gaps in care,’’ he said.
Wraparound support was now ‘‘almost impossible’’ to access, increasing desperation, disenfranchisement, anti-social behaviour and pressure on the shelter.
Meanwhile, there are more homeless people living in tents at the Oval and this week a teenage girl was arrested there.
Mr McKenzie said the shelter, which has capacity for emergency stays of five nights only, aimed to provide a ‘‘safe and supportive space’’.
Its renovation has nearly doubled its previous capacity to 11 beds and improved its shared spaces, which has ‘‘made a huge difference both for guests and staff’’.
‘‘The building is mana-enhancing - easier for people to feel like they are treated with dignity,’’ he said.
However, there were challenges transitioning some people into homes with the support they needed, Mr McKenzie said.
‘‘We are spending much more time supporting people as they navigate access to MSD and housing support, GPs and mental health support. All these things have got increasingly harder for everyone, let alone folk who have significant vulnerabilities and inability to work the system.
‘‘Supported accommodation is almost impossible to get into. The hoops people have to go through just to get an assessment is huge.’’
In one case, a homeless person, with a support worker, had to go to their GP four times just to get the right letter to then get an assessment for mental health support.
‘‘As people are denied basic support, they get increasingly desperate, feel even more disenfranchised by society and this plays out in heightened antisocial behaviour.
We have experienced that here in the past few weeks in a way we haven’t seen in the past three years.’’
Homeless people can also go to the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) and seek an ‘‘emergency’’ grant to pay for accommodation in a motel for seven nights.
However, the government has a national policy of winding down use of motels for emergency stays and for longer-term stays under another government-funded scheme called transitional housing, which also uses houses and apartments.
In the quarter October to December 2024, MSD data shows only six homeless people in Dunedin who applied for the emergency grant were awarded it. Only one of the available motels were used.
MSD’s regional director for the south Sue Rissman said the emergency grant was only offered as a ‘‘last resort’’ and MSD staff tried to access different and more suitable types of support.
Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provides 102 places on the transitional housing scheme in the city, a number that has changed little over the past two years. People on the scheme also get support from either the Salvation Army or the charity Emerge.
Mr McKenzie said there had been an ‘‘encouraging’’ number of homeless people going into the transitional scheme this year. There was also a ‘‘small handful’’ of private rental providers helping in certain cases and two long-term, older homeless people had been given Kāinga Ora and DCC housing.
‘‘On the other hand, there are those who are back to sleeping rough, in their car or tent at the Oval or in bushes.’’
Methodist Mission director Laura Black said the ‘‘housing shortage in New Zealand continues, however we shuffle the lists of those needing emergency, transition or social housing’’.
‘‘Whatever the eligibility rules are, people having to live in tents, as we come into winter, is wholly unacceptable.’’
The number of people on the housing register waiting for a state home in Dunedin has dropped from 464 last March to 362 in February.
However, one woman spoken to by the ODT this week, who recently slept at the Oval and has bounced between short-term private rentals and transitional housing, said she was removed from the register every time she went into a private rental.
The DCC provides 940 council homes, mainly for single people who are older, and has no plans to develop more.
Kainga Ora provides more than 1000 social housing places across Dunedin and Mosgiel, but only 180 are one-bedroom homes.
The government’s 2024 budget allocated $140 million in new funds for 1500 new social housing places to be operated nationwide by community housing providers (CHPs) by June 30, 2027. CHPs are typically not-for-profit organisations.
An HUD spokesperson said the Salvation Army managed 69 social tenancies in Dunedin - about half were launched in the Loan and Mercantile building last year - and there was one additional tenancy provided by another CHP.
Mr McKenzie said a particular frustration was Kāinga Ora pulling back on its building programme, specifically a 41-unit building planned for a Carroll St site that previously had 16 state homes on it, now demolished.
Kāinga Ora regional director Kerrie Young said the agency was ‘‘assessing future options for the site and will keep communities informed as any decision is made’’.
There were 24 new Kāinga Ora homes under construction in Dunedin and Mosgiel, with a further 39 to be delivered by June 2026.
A plan by Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich to transform the abandoned and Kāinga Ora-owned Aaron Lodge Holiday Park into accommodation for homeless people has not progressed and it is for sale.
Ms Brown said it was a ‘‘challenge’’ that Housing First - a government-funded scheme that finds homes for people and provides wrap-around support - had not been funded in Dunedin.
A multi-agency effort meant a data-collecting tool, now being used across agencies, had identified relationships with others was important to homeless people. The finding could lead to the provision of new spaces for connections and shared meals, she said.
The night shelter’s upgrade was funded thanks to community benefactors, including Andrew Simms and Claire Wilton, plus work provided at cost or free by a number of contractors and volunteers working under Stewart Construction.
The shelter still needs donations to cover ongoing staff costs and further upgrades, including installing double glazing, additional heating and a new freezer.
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