2024 Salvation Army State of the Nation Report: Housing, violence against children areas for improvement

New Zealand’s housing crisis has gone on so long it is “becoming normalised”, a Salvation Army analyst says.

It comes as the charity’s 2024 State of the Nation Report finds the Bay of Plenty is the region with the highest need for public housing in the country.

The 17th annual report, which collated data requested by the Salvation Army’s social policy and parliamentary unit under the Official Information Act and publicly available numbers, was launched in Rotorua on Thursday.

Five topics and 123 societal wellbeing indicators were covered in the report including children and youth, housing, work and incomes, crime and punishment, social hazards and Māori wellbeing.

“The housing crisis has eased somewhat,” the report said.

“But the situation is still incredibly hard for the very large group of people struggling on the margins of the housing market or facing homelessness.”

According to the report, calculating the number of people on the Housing Register as a percentage of the total number of public housing units available in an area indicated the supply relative to the need in each region.

The Bay of Plenty scored the highest in the country at 71.92 per cent, followed by Taranaki (55.36 per cent) West Coast Tasman (53.66 per cent) and Waikato (53.45 per cent).

The report said Rotorua was a “significant example” of both housing affordability and the housing shortage crisis after the number of applicants on the housing register in the area increased “nearly eight-fold”, from 104 to 894, between June 2017 and September 2023.

In the wider Bay of Plenty, the report said, there were 2431 applicants on the register and 3380 public homes occupied.

“The number of people waiting for public housing in Rotorua has reduced over the past year from a peak of just over 1000 in 2022 but need for public housing remains acute across most of the Bay of Plenty,” the report said.

Nationally there were 25,383 applicants on the register and 76,042 public housing places occupied.

The report’s co-author and Salvation Army social policy analyst and advocate Ana Ika said at the launch event that the “housing catastrophe” remained a negative on the country’s report card.

Salvation Army social policy analyst and advocate Ana Ika delivers the organisation's 17th annual State of the Nation Report in Rotorua. Photo / Andrew Warner

“It’s always negative. The challenge is we have had this housing crisis for so long that it’s becoming normalised. We need to keep harping on about the housing catastrophe and the challenges our families face.”

Ika said each applicant on the register did not necessarily reflect only one person but could often mean a family in need of a home.

“Housing is often the underlying issue for a lot of the challenges families are facing today,” Ika said.

“There are 25,283 applicants on the public housing register. If these families are on that waitlist where are they now? It’s a snowball effect of challenges and issues.”

Ika said the Salvation Army distributed 92,000 food parcels last year.

“That’s not a flex. We support 160,000 people,” Ika said.

“There needs to be more work in targeted solutions.”

Violence against children rises

The report showed New Zealand had made some gains in the reduction of child poverty and the harm caused by alcohol and illicit drugs. Also, the number of children in state care was reduced to 4317 in 2023.

However, the number of recorded violent offences against children had increased.

According to the report, there were 1540 common assaults against children under 15 in the year to June 2023, 35 per cent higher compared to the year before.

The report showed New Zealand has made gains in the reduction of child poverty and the number of children in state care was reduced to 4317 in 2023. Photo / Andrew Warner

The statistic was part of what the report called “a surge” in violent offences recorded against children.

In 2023 there were 2438 serious assaults resulting in injury, a 17.9 per cent increase on 2022. Meanwhile, 1969 aggravated sexual assaults were recorded, compared to 1790 the year before.

The report said the numbers were part of a wider trend of increased crime, suggesting more “vulnerable children and young people are being caught up in a general increase in violent offending”.

Report card a ‘benchmark’

Ika said the document was a “report card”.

“There’s some good. There’s some bad. There are some areas that need to be worked on,” Ika said.

“Policy is driven by data. If you increase reporting then you can increase better outcomes.

“It’s really important that we remain hopeful in amongst these dark numbers.”

She told the Rotorua Daily Post the report could serve as a “benchmark” for the new Government.

Salvation Army Rotorua corps officer Hana Seddon said at the launch event the report was a “glimpse into what is happening right across a whole lot of sectors”.

“Everything happens in concert,” Seddon said.

“Everything that happens has a response, a reaction. We want to share what is being seen and what is being learned. [This report] is a gift that hopefully gets people thinking.”

Maryana Garcia is a regional reporter writing for the Rotorua Daily Post and the Bay of Plenty Times. She covers local issues, health and crime.