The Wellington City Mission congratulates Housing Ministers Hon. Chris Bishop and Hon. Tama Potaka, and commends the Government for the housing announcements made today.
Wellington City Missioner Murray Edridge says the announcement represents a positive step forward:
“What was shared today is a welcome recognition of the challenges in our community and is a well-considered and targeted response to those challenges”.
“The Ministers have clearly sought and received good advice from their teams about how to respond to the enormity of the issues of rough sleeping, and have listened carefully to the voices of the community, and of the community agencies working in the homelessness space”.
“As acknowledged by Ministers today, we have a broken housing system. The severity of the issues for those struggling become more challenging in times of economic hardship. The Government’s announcements today not only recognise and respond to those challenges, but demonstrate a welcome compassion and concern for those doing life hard.”
The commitment to additional Housing First places across main urban centres will facilitate a rapidly deployable response for those needing housing, and the additional $10 million funding for support services will make a significant difference for frontline providers and those sleeping rough.
The Wellington City Mission supports the new initiatives to enhance and optimise existing services, and particularly appreciates the encouragement to frontline MSD staff to apply more discretion when responding to people who are often in desperate need of assistance.
ENDS
For any further media enquiries, please contact joe@wcm.org.nz
About the Wellington City Mission
The Wellington City Mission has been supporting Wellingtonians for more than 120 years. We provide transitional housing, food support through our Social Supermarket, one to one peer support including financial mentoring, rest home care, and community connection through our ‘contribute what you can’ café at Whakamaru. Our kaupapa is to walk alongside people with dignity and mana, empowering them to build fuller lives. All our work is made possible through government funding, the generosity of donors, volunteers, and community partners.
