Research shows homeless children overlooked by social housing system

An advocacy group is calling for urgent action to house thousands of homeless mothers and their children.

Coalition to End Women's Homelessness research shows women account for half New Zealand's homeless population and, of those 57,000, many are still caring for children.

The group did the first data dive on 33,000 children who were in severe housing deprivation at the time of the latest census and found they were missing out on so much more than a stable roof.

Steering committee member Dr Jo Cribb said too many children were without stable shelter.

"No-one had looked into this data, who are the children that are homeless and what are the implications of that for them?"

Their ages were evenly spread from babies to 17-year-olds.

"This is toddlers living without shelter, it's babies in temporary accommodation, it's teenagers packed into bedrooms, or in incredibly unhealthy housing or their cars."

Researchers tracked the 33,000 homeless children and found that, compared to their peers with stable housing, they were less likely to enrol with a general practitioner, less likely to attend pre-school and more likely to be hospitalised with preventable illness.

They also found young people experiencing homelessness were more likely to be of Maori or Pacific descent, and nearly three times more likely to have experienced abuse.

"Someone, somewhere in the system knows that they are without housing, whether it's the school or through accessing foodbanks," Dr Cribb said.

"The system knows each of these children and we aren't responding in a systematic way, we aren't wrapping the services around them and we're really letting them down. We're letting them fall through the cracks in the system."

A Community Housing Aotearoa report warned homelessness had reached its highest level ever, with a shortage of affordable housing compounding the problem.

The report also highlighted the number of young people experiencing homelessness, with more than half of all people under the age of 24.

Cribb said the latest government Budget showed no plan to reduce child poverty.

"Women's homelessness has lasting and profound impact on such a large population of children that we can't leave it invisible like it is," she said.

"We need a focus on supporting women in housing and keeping their families together. We need a housing policy and housing options that specifically take into account the needs of women and children."

Auckland City Mission's transitional housing service for homeless women cares for 16 wāhine at a time.

Hayley Rawhiti is Kai Atarau - co-lead at Te Whare Hīnātore - and said many were solo mothers who felt shame and guilt that their children no longer lived with them.

She recalled one woman worked very hard to conquer addictions and was now re-united with her tamariki in stable housing.

"That was a really long process, and she was just so diligent about going out to see her kids and maintain that connection with them, and working on herself... just doing all the mahi that she needed to do," Rawhiti said.

"To see her actually succeed and get that housing, and have the kids back in her care was just incredible."

Rawhiti said the mother had an agonising wait for social housing accommodation with enough bedrooms for her children.

"You need to have the kids in your care to be eligible for a bigger house, but to be eligible to have the kids in your care, you have to have the appropriate housing available for them," she said.

"It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation, and that's definitely been something that we have to negotiate and problem solve."

Rawhiti would like to see safe social housing prioritised for women and their children.

"Sometimes, through no fault of anyone, they're not able to have the children in their care and it is extremely traumatising," Rawhiti said.

Child Poverty Action Group executive officer Lyn Amos said close to 50,000 children had slipped into poverty in the past three years.

"We already pay for child poverty," she said. "It's not about putting fiscal restraint on to save money, because the costs are shifted to the hospitals, the emergency housing, mental health services and the justice system.

"That cost is considered to be about $15 billion a year that we are paying, because child poverty exists to the extent that it does in our country."

Both groups would like to see more invested in preventing child poverty, with better wraparound support for mothers and children in the welfare system.

Amos said child poverty was at crisis level and the impacts were often lifelong.

"Those children in homeless situations are at the absolute sharp end of all the deprivation that they are experiencing, so it's absolutely shocking."

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