Friday 31 May 2018

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff has welcomed the first-year results released today by the Housing First Auckland collective.

Mayor Phil Goff said, “Supporting 420 people, including 193 children, into permanent homes in the first twelve months of the programme is a great result for Housing First.

“Hundreds of vulnerable adults, children and families have been helped into warm, secure homes. This is life changing for those individuals and families.

"Housing First is a proven model for addressing homelessness. It has worked overseas, around New Zealand, and in Auckland,” said Phil Goff.

The model recognises that you can’t start to address issues that cause homelessness, such as mental health and substance abuse, while people are living on the streets. Housing First works by moving people into appropriate housing and providing wrap-around services to help them deal with the issues that cause them to be homeless.

“A decent and inclusive society demands that we address the problem of people sleeping rough around our city and families sleeping in overcrowded dwellings, garages and cars.

“Council partners with five agencies that make up Housing First Auckland to tackle homelessness. It also supports the James Liston Hostel and emergency housing coordination.

“We are also working closely with the Government to support measures like KiwiBuild to accelerate house-building and the provision of more social and affordable housing to tackle housing shortages which make homelessness worse

"Taking effective steps to respond to chronic homelessness requires central and local government, NGOs and the private sector to work together

“I welcome the recent pre-budget announcement by Government to inject an additional $63.4 million to sustain and expand the Housing First model across New Zealand.

“It's a significant investment that will make a real difference in the lives of some of New Zealand's most vulnerable people,” Phil Goff said.

ENDS

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