Agencies join to end 'rough sleeping' in city centre

Twelve agencies will sign an agreement today in a bid to end "rough sleeping" in Auckland's central business district by 2022.

The agreement, bringing local and national government agencies together with the charities that feed the homeless, will set up regular meetings so agencies can plan jointly for people at risk of homelessness, such as people leaving jails and psychiatric wards with nowhere to go.

The latest street count found 76 people "sleeping rough" in streets, parks and makeshift shelters within 3km of the Sky Tower on the evening of July 5.

The number was down on a record count of 91 last year, partly because the Auckland City Mission and Lifewise (Methodist Mission) placed 61 homeless people into housing during the year.

A further 587 people were counted as "secondary and tertiary homeless" because they were in boarding houses and other insecure accommodation.

This number was also slightly down, from 604 last year.

Today's agreement is the outcome of several years of efforts by the two missions and other agencies to reach the homeless more effectively.

Lifewise general manager John McCarthy said mental health workers, Housing NZ, the Probation Service and other agencies had now placed staff regularly in Lifewise's Airedale Centre opposite the Town Hall, but people were still falling through the gaps.

"A typical scenario for Lifewise would be a cab turning up outside the centre with a one-way taxi chit from Mt Eden Prison to Airedale St saying, 'Please can you help this person'," he said.

"It shouldn't be happening. People need decent discharge plans from prison. This consolidated care management group could be contacted weeks before the person is discharged to say, 'I've got Fred, he's saying he needs to be housed, and he needs half a dozen other things'.

"Rather than the release planner ringing the mental health service and Cads [Community Alcohol and Drugs] and Housing NZ and Work and Income and doing all the work, they could say, 'Please could Fred be presented at the next care co-ordination meeting and a plan be formulated so that work is done before Fred is released."'

The joint agreement provides for a "special circumstances court" to work closely with support agencies for a small group that appears constantly in court for minor offences such as urinating in a public place.

Auckland City Missioner Diane Robertson said a health service now running five days a week at the City Mission's Hobson St drop-in centre had helped to reach many more homeless.

"The clients' health outcomes are incredibly better, and when they come and see the doctor we can get them to see our social workers to assess their housing needs," she said.

The mission has won resource consent for a $100 million redevelopment of its site to include 80 homes for homeless people and 50 for sole parents attending university.

Mayor John Banks, who slept in the Auckland Domain for several months when he was 18 after both his parents were jailed, said that if he won next year's election for mayor of the new Auckland Super City, he would bring the private sector into the homeless care-group to provide jobs, for example, in restaurants.

HOMELESS CENSUS

Sleeping rough within 3km of Sky Tower, July 5

*62 men
*10 women
*4 gender uncertain
*41 Maori
*16 European
*6 Pacific
*1 Indian
*12 ethnicity uncertain
*18 aged 21-30
*22 aged 31-40
*14 aged 41-50
*9 aged over 50
*13 age uncertain