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https://theconversation.com/new-police-powers-to-move-on-rough-sleepers-only-mask-nzs-deeper-homelessness-problem-276621>
"The government’s plan to empower police to “issue move-on orders as a tool to
deal with disorderly behaviour in public places” will effectively apply to
people as young as 14 who are experiencing homelessness and who “obstruct”
access to businesses, beg or sleep rough.
Critics have called the policy unworkable and “draconian”, particularly the
provisions for NZ$2,000 fines or up to three months in prison as penalties for
breaches.
While the approach may move people out of central business districts
temporarily, it won’t tackle homelessness in the long term. In fact, the focus
on those who are visibly sleeping rough obscures the true extent and nature of
homelessness in New Zealand.
Rough sleeping is just the tip of the iceberg. On the night of the 2023 Census,
there were 112,496 people experiencing homelessness. The most common form of
homelessness was living in uninhabitable housing, followed by sharing
accommodation.
New Zealand is also an outlier internationally in that more than half of those
experiencing homelessness are women. This is in large part because New Zealand
defines and measures homelessness comprehensively as:
[…] living situations where people with no other options to acquire safe and
secure housing are: without shelter, in temporary accommodation, sharing
accommodation with a household, or living in uninhabitable housing.
Unfortunately, we are set to lose the continued collection of such high-quality
data with the end of the traditional Census.
Homelessness among women, and mothers in particular, also occurs because our
welfare state doesn’t provide sufficient support to prevent homelessness.
Homelessness is systemic; quick-fix “solutions” like move-on orders don’t solve
anything."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
