Open Letter: Bin the Ban - we want stable homes and support for unhoused whānau
To:
Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon
Minister for Auckland, Simeon Brown
Minister of Justice, Paul Goldsmith
Minister of Police, Mark Mitchell
Minister for Housing, Chris Bishop
Associate Minister for Housing, Tama Potaka
Everyone in Tāmaki Makaurau should have a stable home, adequate income and access to well-resourced public services and spaces. This is what will make our city a great place to live, work and visit.
But right now, we are seeing a visible increase in Aucklanders who are unhoused living on our city streets because they have nowhere safe to live. We are seeing more people experiencing mental health crises on our streets because the services that support us all to be well aren’t accessible.
This is a result of choices made by the Government when they:
Cut funding and increased barriers to access emergency housing meaning more people are being denied immediate shelter.[1]
Paused and then cancelled the construction of over 50 Kāinga Ora housing developments across Tāmaki Makaurau that would have provided hundreds of decent and stable homes to people who need to pay lower rent, including in the city centre.[2]
Cut millions tagged to providing housing to rangatahi experiencing homelessness.[3]
Weakened tenants’ rights and strengthened landlords’ power to evict whānau without cause.[4]
These choices are directly linked to more Aucklanders sleeping on our streets, in parks, and in their cars. Over the past year, rough sleeping in Auckland has increased by 90% from 426 people recorded by Auckland Council in September 2024, to 809 in May 2025.[5] This number has likely grown since then.
Instead of responding to this escalating crisis with compassion and proactive solutions, the Government has signalled that it is considering legislation or by-law changes that will increase powers to police to force unhoused people out of the city centre.
The impact of this will be devastating.
We know that people who have been denied access to shelter come to the city centre because of visibility, community, safety and protection. The proposed “Move On” orders will mean people with nowhere else to go will be driven from the city centre where support services and networks are, to more dangerous and unsafe places.
The evidence is clear - criminalising homeless people is ineffective.[6] The solution to homelessness is building the infrastructure in our city centre for care and connection: building public housing at scale that will create stable foundations for people, resourcing the services that support our neighbours to be well, and creating public spaces where every Aucklander can feel at home.
We urge the Ministers responsible to listen to those who are experiencing homelessness and our communities, and to not proceed with the proposed ban on our unhoused whānau in the city centre. Instead of the proposed ban, we urge you to:
● Roll back the emergency housing changes and resource immediate housing solutions. It’s clear that the Government’s decision to cut Emergency Housing has led to more people being turned away from immediate shelter onto our streets. The Government should resource an alternative to motel-based emergency housing byfunding immediate housing services. This will prevent people from being forced to sleep outside and instead receive the safety and support they require while permanent and stable housing is built.
● Fund health and outreach services that work with our unhoused whānau. People working in mental health and addictions, community, and health services can support whānau to thrive - but only when they’re funded and resourced to do so. Instead of funding Move On orders, we should be funding those services. This includes investing in outreach services, and in integrated services that act as Third Spaces and centralised hubs in the city for people to access support, connect and build community. These actions will create an inclusive and uplifting community for all.
● Implement Duty to Assist legislation. This would mean that our local, government, and community services would have an obligation to do what they can to prevent homelessness and to work with people to access stable housing. It would mean that people are supported to stay in their housing, and not turned away from accessing immediate housing support. It would mean that our public and community services would have an obligation to work with people to find suitable and stable housing.
● Build public housing at scale. The Government has put some resources into creating more Housing First places, but they have also cancelled the construction of Kāinga Ora homes that would have created decent and stable housing for people, and are selling state housing land around Auckland. The Government has the scale to build more public housing in our city for those who need to pay lower rent. This will create a stable foundation for people to put down roots and connect to their community. It will support our city to thrive.
The proposal to use police to move unhoused people from the city centre is a superficial solution to a much deeper problem that this government has actively fuelled by the political decisions it has made.
We can have a Tāmaki Makaurau where everyone can thrive, but we need to make different political decisions. Decisions that will make our city a place where everyone can afford to live and where every Aucklander can access well-resourced services that allow them to thrive.
Signed,
Alexandra Bonham, Chair of the Waitematā Local Board
Apulu Reece Autagavaia, Elected member of Ōtara-Papatoetoe Local Board
Emma McInnes, Elected member of Albert-Eden Local Board
Lotu Fuli, Manukau Ward Councillor
Dr Sarah Paterson-Hamlin, Whau Ward Councillor
Chlöe Swarbrick, MP for Auckland Central
Helen White, MP for Mt Albert
Phil Twyford, MP for Te Atatū
Arena Williams, MP for Manurewa
Kieran McAnulty, Member of Parliament, Labour party
Vanessa, ActionStation Aotearoa and Public Housing Futures
Aaron Hendry, General Manager of Kick Back
Agnes Magele, Coordinator of Auckland Action Against Poverty
Danielle LeGallais, Co-founder of Sunday Blessings
Michael Gibbs, Assistant Secretary of Public Service Association
Alicia Sudden, Chief Executive Officer of New Zealand Christian Social Services
Kerry Dalton, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice Bureau NZ
Shaun Robinson, Mental Health Foundation
Heather Campbell, CEO of Save the Children
Sue Moroney, CEO of Community Law Centres Aotearoa
Awatea Tuhura Mita, Director of Youth and Justice Coalition
Sarita Divis, Executive Officer of Child Poverty Action Group
Lisa Silipa, Executive Director of JustSpeak
Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers
Gabriella Guy, Head of Insights and Impact VOYCE - Whakarongo Mai
Aisling Carney, Advocacy and Communications Lead at Ara Taiohi
Amber Gribble, Executive Director of RainbowYOUTH
Sonja Cooper, Cooper Legal
Jaclyn Bonnici, I Love Avondale
Leigh Henderson, Chair of FASD-CAN Inc (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Care Action Network)
People Against Prisons Aotearoa
Cosmo William Jeffery, Canterbury Howard League for Penal Reform
Michelle Egan-Bitran, Foundation for Equity and Research New Zealand and Family for Every Child
Charlotte Lee-Smith on behalf of Te Pai Ora SSPA
Dave Letele, Founder of BBM
Rob Campbell, CNZM
David Tayler Hansen, Onewa Christian Community
Grant Stewart Milne, Mairangi Bay Presbyterian Church
Heather Ameye-Bevers, Pastor at Windsor Park Baptist Church
Joshua Hendry, General Manager of Massey Community Trust
Elizabeth Tonks, Advocate for Network of Survivors of Abuse in Faith-based Care
References
'Almost a trap' - Advocates say near impossible to get into emergency housing as homelessness increases. RNZ, 7 Mar 2025
People of Kāinga Ora: The big state housing sell-down. Newsroom, 24 June 2025
Fears for homeless rangatahi increase after budget cuts. Te Ao Māori News, 13 June 2024
Landlords can now evict tenants without cause. Here’s what you need to know. Stuff, 30 January 2025
Homelessness insights report June 2025. Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, June 2025
Criminalizing Homelessness Worsens the Crisis, Research Shows. National Alliance to End Homelessness, 4 February 2025 (US-based research)