Tue 11 Oct 2016 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
The final report of the Cross-Party Homelessness Inquiry strongly urges the Government to take greater steps to address the problem of homelessness in New Zealand but does not mention glbti homeless people. Only two written submissions and one in-person submission were made regarding LGBTI homelessness out of 450 submissions made,and the report does not specifically address the problems faced by what is known to be such a vulnerable group. RainbowYOUTH says 26% of LGBTI youth who come out to family end up becoming disowned and homeless. Overseas studies estimate 20 - 40% of the homeless youth population are LGBTI. The report, released yesterday, makes a passing mention of LGBTI people in a list of groups that the cross-party inquiry heard were particularly affected by homelessness and acknowledges that “Addressing homelessness will mean different approaches are needed for different communities to ensure the burden of homelessness is lifted from all groups.” The lack of submissions related to the LGBTI community was noted as a concern as the Inquiry made its way around the country. Māori and Pasifika communities are acknowledged as being particularly affected by homelessness, with research by the University of Otago showing that “while 4 in every 1,000 European people are homeless, that figure is ten times as high for Pasifika at 39 per 1,000, and very high for the Māori population at 21 per 1,000.” The Cross-Party Inquiry has made 20 recommendations to the Government to address these issues and say without an increase in permanent housing for the homeless to go into, these will not ultimately be addressed. Key recommendations from the Cross Party Inquiry include rolling out Housing First as the primary response to severe homelessness, creating a national strategy to end homelessness, increasing youth housing and services and collecting regular data on homelessness. The Inquiry was launched by the Labour Party, the Green Party and the Māori party after a request for a Parliamentary select committee inquiry in to homelessness was rejected by National MPs. It traveled to four of the main centres around the country to hear in-person submissions throughout August and September.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 11th October 2016 - 12:10pm