Te Taumata Hauora o Te Kahu o Taonui has released a
landmark report grounded in whānau experiences of housing
insecurity, calling the Government’s move-on orders a
failure of leadership and challenging the next Government to
guarantee access to housing as essential to health, dignity,
and safety.
He Whare Oranga, He Whare Māori brings
together whānau kōrero from Te Tai Tokerau and Tāmaki
Makaurau, alongside the experience of Māori housing
providers. Whānau identified housing as the number one
health issue for whānau in Te Tai Tokerau.
The report
records parents living in cars and unable to take their
pēpi home safely; tāne leaving prison with little money
and no stable place to go; working families with two incomes
struggling to meet rent; and whānau dreaming of papakāinga
while finance, infrastructure, and lengthy land processes
keep them from their whenua.
Chief Executive Boyd
Broughton says those stories expose the cruelty of treating
visible homelessness as a public-order problem.
“You
cannot move someone on from homelessness. You can only move
them out of sight. A direction to leave does not create a
bed, unlock a home, reconnect whānau with whenua, or
restore a person’s mana. It simply shifts hardship from
one street to another.”
The Summary Offences
(Move-on Orders) Amendment Act 2026 came into force on 25
October. It allows Police to issue written orders requiring
adults to leave and remain away from a public place for up
to 24 hours, including where rough sleeping or makeshift
shelter indicates an intent to inhabit that
place.
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“This Government has chosen enforcement where
leadership was required,” Broughton says. “At the very
moment whānau are telling us they need stable housing,
mental-health support, trusted navigation, and pathways
home, the Crown’s answer is to tell them to disappear for
24 hours. That is not a housing policy. It is the management
of visibility.”
He Whare Oranga, He Whare Māori
sets out a different path: a low-barrier night shelter;
needs-based emergency accommodation; housing referrals
embedded in health services; lived-experience navigators;
integrated kaupapa Māori mental-health, addiction, and
whānau restoration support; progressive homeownership;
state-backed low-interest finance; and long-term investment
in papakāinga and infrastructure on whenua
Māori.
Deputy Chair Wallace Rivers says the report is
a direct challenge to political leaders ahead of the next
election.
“The next Government must decide what kind
of country it wants to lead. One that moves whānau from
doorway to doorway, or one that backs them into safe, secure
homes. Housing is not a reward for good behaviour. It is
essential to a healthy life lived with dignity and
safety.”
Te Taumata Hauora is calling on the next
Government, whoever forms it, to:
- replace
displacement-first responses with housing-first,
whānau-centred support; - guarantee that no move-on
order is issued for rough sleeping without a genuine, safe
accommodation option and a supported referral; - fund
a low-barrier night shelter and coordinated housing
navigation Te Tai Tokerau; - restore state-backed,
low-interest pathways into housing for low-income and Māori
households; - scale investment in papakāinga,
infrastructure, and lending mechanisms that recognise
collective Māori land tenure; and - resource kaupapa
Māori providers through long-term funding to deliver
locally designed solutions.
Broughton says the
report leaves no room for political delay.
“Whānau
have already done the hardest part. They have trusted us
with stories of loss, separation, violence, survival, and
hope. They should not have to keep reliving those
experiences while governments consult, announce, and move
on. The next Government must back whānau with homes,
resources, and decision-making power, and it must be judged
by what changes on the ground.”
Te Taumata Hauora o
Te Kahu o Taonui Deputy Chair Wallace Rivers says the
measure of leadership is not how quickly hardship can be
cleared from public view, but whether people have somewhere
safe to go.
“A home is where hauora begins. It is
where tamariki are protected, where whānau can recover, and
where hope becomes possible. Our challenge to every
political party is simple: stop moving whānau on, and start
moving the system
forward.”
