More than 800 rough sleepers are now being helped in Auckland. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Finn Blackwell
The government needs to do more to combat homelessness, says an Auckland council committee, after outreach teams recorded a 90 percent increase in people sleeping rough since September.
Outreach providers in the city say they are now dealing with 809 rough sleepers.
The Community Committee voted this afternoon to write to the government, asking it to engage with frontline agencies to understand and respond to the drivers for all homeless people.
This included using data provided by sector organisations working on the ground, alongside the 2023 census data.
Committee chair and councillor Angela Dalton told Checkpoint that homelessness has reached crisis point in the city and is likely still rising.
"It is a crisis in Auckland and if it has risen by 90 from September till May 2025, we're in July, I doubt very much those numbers would have decreased, they would have increased," Dalton said.
"We need a shift in policy change, we need understanding and a bit of compassion would help, to understand why our people are homeless and how we can provide them with a roof over their heads."
Dalton said the policy changes that made it harder for people to access emergency housing, and declining those that have contributed to their lack of housing, has been problematic.
"I think there's some policies that have been changed that shows a lack of compassion because they are making assumptions that people are not trying hard enough."
A government report released last week found 14 percent of people leaving emergency housing may be homeless.
Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson talked to the committee, as a representative of the Coalition to End Women's Homelessness.
The coalition's research late last year found 46 percent of homeless women lived in Auckland.
"The Auckland City Mission is asking for the council to do everything in its power to communicate to government the reality of homelessness that we see here in the central city Auckland and to advocate for a system that genuinely responds to those people's needs."
Robinson said that included house houses and appropriate support.
"There is a real call to change the current emergency housing policies and then to work with organisations like the mission so we can provide the services people need when they truly are at that point of homelessness."
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