An introduction to homelessness
Prepared by: Ngāmotu Street Initiative, Justin
Last updated November 2024
Statistics New Zealand defines homelessness as:
‘Living situations where people with no other options to acquire safe and secure housing are without shelter, in temporary accommodation, sharing accommodation with a household or living in uninhabitable housing.’
Homelessness is often viewed through three categories: chronic, episodic, and transitional. The estimated percentage of homeless in each of those categories is below and percentages generally align to the resource contributed to each group.
Chronic homelessness is experienced by people who are without conventional accommodation for six months or longer (e.g. sleeping rough or in improvised dwellings). People who experience chronic homelessness likely have complex needs.
Episodic homelessness is experienced by people who frequently move from one temporary shelter to another (e.g. emergency accommodation, youth refuges, and “couch surfing”). Addiction, mental health issues, trauma and debt are significant issues for this group. A mounting debt situation means that rent goes unpaid and is shortly followed by eviction. Those with long-term addictions require significant support from wrap-around drug and alcohol services. Many also carry a significant debt burden as a result of poor financial skills and typically rely on a benefit as a primary source of income.
Transitional homelessness is experienced by people staying in accommodation that falls below minimum community standards (e.g. boarding housing and caravan parks). Redundancy, relationship or family breakdowns, and health issues are just some of the reasons why people in this group become homeless – if only for a short period of time. Families dominate this group and, for some, this could be their first encounter with social services.
Understanding Homelessness
While poverty and lack of affordable housing are the main drivers of homelessness, homelessness is not ’caused’ by one thing, but often is an outcome of many different challenges.
Homelessness is often a topic that is hard for introspection and therefore becomes easy to believe it to be the sole personal fault of those who are homeless. We’ve found that for individuals with no knowledge of homelessness or a lack of experience with life challenges, it can be hard to imagine how one may come to find themselves unhoused. Individual decisions or circumstances rarely lead people to being unhoused, instead a cumulation of factors can and do lead to homelessness.
A recent Spinoff cover story, Inside the urgent race to solve homelessness in Aotearoa, provides a longform journalism look at homelessness in Aotearoa and is helpful in the journey to understand homelessness. We encourage this to be read.
Additional Information
The below information has not been incorporated elsewhere into this fact-checking series, but provides important facts when considering homelessness.
There are now a number of reports that show that the financial cost to society of ending someone’s homelessness is less than the cost of leaving people to live on the streets.
- Crimp, L. (2024, April 18). Housing programme leads to ‘impressive’ long-term change in health and wellbeing. RNZ. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/514618/housing-programme-leads-to-impressive-long-term-change-in-health-and-wellbeing
- The People’s Project (n.d.).
Supporting Housing First research in New Zealand. https://www.thepeoplesproject.org.nz/about-us/our-research/ - Ombler, J., Jiang, T., Fraser, B., Nelson, J., McMinn, C., Hawkes, K., Atatoa Carr, P., Pehi, T., Aspinall, C., Bierre, S., Schick, J., Howden-Chapman, P., & Pierse, N. (2024). Five-Year Post-Housing Outcomes for a Housing First Cohort in Aotearoa, New Zealand. International Journal on Homelessness 4(2), 109–125. https://doi.org/10.5206/ijoh.2023.3.16747
- Zaretzky, K. & Flatau, P. (2013). The cost of homelessness and the net benefit of homelessness programs: a national study. (Report No. 218). Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Melbourne, Australia. https://www.ahuri.edu.au/sites/default/files/migration/documents/AHURI_Final_Report_No218_The-cost-of-homelessness-and-the-net-benefit-of-homelessness-programs-a-national-study.pdf
- Equity Economics (2020). Double return: How investing in social housing can address the growing homelessness crisis and boost Australia’s economic recovery. Everybody’s Home. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/61b14c4abbc81a1543f55180/t/62185f6377df011e88751960/1645764495571/Double%2BReturn%2B-%2BHomelessness%2BReport-%2B15%2BDecember%2B2020.pdf
- AHURI (n.d.). How supporting people at risk of homelessness helps reduce other costs. https://www.ahuri.edu.au/analysis/brief/how-supporting-people-risk-homelessness-helps-reduce-other-costs
About one in five homeless will have psychosis, according to a recent University of Otago study; and about 40 percent of deaths among homeless people are by suicide, according to a study in 2020.
Prevention addresses problems that cause mental distress and illness, such as poverty,
housing, family violence and the impacts of colonisation.
Anosognosia (unawareness of one’s illness) impacts 60% of people with schizophrenia and 50% of people with bipolar disorder. At least one in five people with severe mental illness are unable to recognise that they have an illness. Anosognosia is the leading cause of treatment non-adherence for people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.