Political Leaders Called On To Commit To Ending Youth Homelessness

Amy
Williams Senior Reporter

The youth development
organisation Kick Back is calling on political leaders to
commit to ending homelessness among young people, ahead of
the election.

Its general manager Aaron Hendry said in
the last five months they have helped 74 children and young
people to access shelter in Auckland.

“In some cases
these young people have been sleeping rough, sleeping
outside on our streets. In other cases they’re couch surfing
in dangerous situations or living in their cars,” he
said.

“We’re seeing a lot of young people really high
in complex trauma, addiction, mental health, disabilities,
often in really dangerous and vulnerable
situations.”

He said they were seeing an “alarming”
number of children aged under 14 coming to Kick Back’s youth
homelessness crisis response and early intervention centre,
The Front Door.

“It is getting younger and younger and
there’s real concerns around the safety of children who are
extremely vulnerable and are going through some really tough
stuff.”

Hendry said Kick Back was asking political
parties to agree to a dozen steps, including introducing
duty to assist laws, developing a strategy to end youth
homelessness and providing access to emergency
housing.

“These are things like increasing investment
in youth housing services and public housing services,
rolling back the emergency housing policy and investing in
immediate housing so that when people need housing they can
get it,” he said.

“Youth homelessness shouldn’t be a
partisan issue, our children’s safety is far too
important.”

Hendry said so far, the Greens, Te Pāti
Māori and Opportunity have accepted all 12 calls to action,
Labour has committed to seven and they are yet to get a
response from National, ACT and NZ First.

The 12 steps
are:

1. Roll back the emergency housing reforms to
ensure that everyone who needs immediate access to shelter
can get it

2. Stop benefit sanctions against people
experiencing – or at-risk of – homelessness

3.
Increase investment in Immediate Housing services

4.
Introduce Duty to Assist Legislation so that no young person
is turned away when they seek help

5. Prevent
transitions from state care into homelessness

6.
Strengthen youth services for young people experiencing
homelessness by resourcing them adequately

7. Increase
public housing and youth-focused housing options

8.
Develop a national strategy to end youth
homelessness

9. Increase investment in outreach and
integrated service centres

10. Form a regional and
national crisis response rōpū to actively respond to the
escalating homelessness crisis

11. Return access to
the benefit to 18-19 year olds

12. Repeal the move-on
orders to stop the criminalisation of people for having no
where safe to
go

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