Government decisions risk increasing homelessness / A.J. Hendry

Decisions to make the welfare system tougher bake inequality into the system... this can only lead to more harm!

Photo by Elyse Chia on Unsplash

There is an idea within some corners of New Zealand that poverty persists because of a lack of motivation on behalf of the poor.

The solution to this lack - and by extension to poverty itself- is then often articulated in the form of tougher sanctions and more stringent and punitive policies for those who require support from the State to feed and house themselves and their whānau.

In line with this thinking, the Government has recently announced a suite of policies which will make life more difficult for those who are currently in need of support from the Government for shelter, clothing, kai and their other most basic human needs.

Increasing the use of sanctions and making it harder to gain and reatain Emergency Housing, are all a part of the Government's strategy to increase "motivation" for those currently doing it tough.

The Government has argued the benevolence of their decisions. Put simply, it's "tough love! We care too much for the poor, to allow them to waste their potential."

The problem of course is that though it's easy to say you care while sitting in comfort on the 9th floor of the Beehive, the policies being driven from Wellington show a clear lack of basic care, Love, or concern for those whose lives will be most deeply impacted.

Recently, I spoke with a rangatahi who had been sanctioned, and had recently been sleeping rough. While on the street, his focus had been on survival, and his ability to engage with "his obligations" was limited.

The sanction he received hadn't "motivated him to work", because he wasn't without work because of a lack of motivation. No, the reason he hadn't been able to get mahi, was because, quite frankly, experiencing homelessness sucks all the life and energy out of ya.

As one young person shared with me recently, "its a lot of work being poor."

They spoke about the challenge and truama of always having to think about where you will find shelter for the night, and the next, of being on constant alert, never sure if you were actually safe. Of the constant fight and struggle of being forced to advocate for yourself, constantly in the position of having to fight for your own basic rights against systems and services that say on the door that they're "here to help", but rarely ever do.

The decisions the Government has made, both through making the Emergency Housing system more difficult to navigate, and through their newly introduced Traffic Light System for those on the Job Seeker, represent more barriers for people who already have nothing but barriers in front of them.

And when we create more barriers for people, making the system tougher, we suck energy from people, which could go into them dealing with the real stuff that is going on for them.

As with many of the announcements made over the last few weeks, I am specifically concerned about the risk these decisions pose to young people, and the potential risk of increased homelessness for those who are already the most vulnerable.

For example, I have very little confidence that the 32% reduction in Emergency Housing, which the Government recently celebrated, actually represents a significant decrease in homelessness within Aotearoa.

Since 2022 we have seen increased barriers to accessing Emergency Housing for those who need it, while previous Emergency Housing providers have rebranded as "transitional" or returned to their previous designations as Hostels, while continuing to provide insecure shelter to the same marginalized and vulnerable group of people.

Emergency Housing has a been more than a policy failure, it has represented a moral rupture within the heart of our society, a decision to privatize what is the States responsibility to care for our most vulnerable, resulting in landlords sucking up profits, while sustaining homelessness and denying our people their basic human rights.

We do need to move away from Emergency Housing, however it is vital that we build alternatives to safely provide shelter for people in Immediate Housing need, while supporting them to gain stable and safe housing. And we need to do this, while ensuring we are building the housing we need, to ensure all our people can access safe and stable housing.

I am concerned that the tougher approach the Government has articulated will push more of our people - especially our young people - onto the streets and into more dangerous and vulnerable situations, where they will be at risk of abuse, exploitation and increased physical and psychological harm.

Ending the use of motels is a worthy goal, but if we reduce motel use, without providing an alternative or fundamentally dealing with the problem (which of course is the lack of safe and stable housing), we will only sweep the issue under the rug, causing more harm to people in the process.

I have the same concern with the Government's increased use of Sanctions for those needing financial support in order to access their basic human needs. It is always those whome our society has already pushed to its margins, who suffer the most from these decisions.

Our disabled community, those who live with enduring mental illness, our care experienced survivors, those who have survived trauma and abuse, our young people, it is these people who are most likely to be caused harm from the policies the Government have chosen to implement.

Poverty does not exist because people lack motivation. To make that claim requires us all to close our eyes to the reality of inequality and the enduring impacts of colonization within Aotearoa.

No, poverty exists because of the decisions we have collectively made to allow a handful of individuals and corporations to hoard wealth at the expense of the rest of us.

It exists, because, just as the Government has illustrated so perfectly this last few weeks, those in power continually make the choice to bake this inequality into the very systems we claim we have built "to help".

The poor are an easy scapegoat for our societies anxieties. But, those struggling the most, are not responsible for the economic upheaval we are all experiencing. For the true culprit's of this mess, we will have to raise our eyes a whole lot higher, to those who benefit the most from maintaining the status quo, continuing to amass wealth, while the majority of us continue to struggle and strive to get by.

Punching down on those who are already struggling the most will not alleviate the suffering and struggle middle New Zealand is now enduring.

In fact, at a time when any one of us could easily find ourselves in need of support from the State, supporting such punitive and archaic welfare reforms works against all our interests.

The way forward is not more punishment. It is healing, hope, it is solidarity. It is recognizing that now, more than ever, we need one another to thrive.

It is understanding, that opportunity, is not birthed at the end of a stick, but within community, and as a result of stability, security, and love.

For us all to thrive, together, we must begin to recognise how connected we all are.

To begin to grasp the eternal truth, that my Liberation and yours are bound up together, that at the end of the day we belong to one another, and when I thrive you thrive... together.

#LoveIsTheWay

A.J. Hendry is a Youth Development Worker and rangatahi advocate, working in the Youth Housing and Homelessness space. He leads and co-founded Kick Back, a youth development organizations responding to youth homelessness and is also an advocate working collectively to end youth homelessness in Aotearoa. He is also the curator and creator of When Lambs Are Silent.