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Speaker 1: Either duplice Ellen, I want to know what you think.

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Speaker 1: Nine two nine two is the text number. Standard text

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Speaker 1: fees apply.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: There is a disagreement between the government and housing providers

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Speaker 1: over the state of homelessness. Advocates say homelessness has reached

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Speaker 1: a crisis point, but Associate Minister Housing Minister Tama Pautucke

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Speaker 1: today admitted yep, rough sleeping has become more common in

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Speaker 1: some areas, but he reckons the government's policies are not

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Speaker 1: contributing to the situation. Now, Hi Hai hutu Hi To

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Speaker 1: Barrett is the CEO of Life Wise and is with

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Speaker 1: us now, High Hidulder, how are you? I'm very very well,

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Speaker 1: thank you. What is the state of homelessness?

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Speaker 2: State of homelessness? So well, it's very visual right now

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Speaker 2: of our rough sleepers across we're looking at absolute probably

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Speaker 2: ten years ago rough sleeping, but this time it's on steroids,

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Speaker 2: and we're looking at a crisis around alcohol and drug

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Speaker 2: mental health and distress on our streets.

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Speaker 1: It morome we've ever seen.

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Speaker 2: It's in my years and that's like nearly twenty years now.

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Speaker 2: Work in front facing were Fano. This is the worst

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Speaker 2: I've ever seen it.

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Speaker 1: And can we blame government policies for this?

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Speaker 2: We can definitely blame decisions that have been made from

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Speaker 2: the current government. We're looking at EH when it was

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Speaker 2: shut down, we didn't have appropriate pipelining happening for people

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Speaker 2: coming out of the motel space who had been stuck

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Speaker 2: there for more than two years. In a lot of

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Speaker 2: the habits that we've seen on the streets today actually

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Speaker 2: started in the motel so that means supports services were

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Speaker 2: really minimal because they're very under resource.

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Speaker 1: So are you saying that these people who are sleeping

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Speaker 1: out on the streets at the minute of people who

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Speaker 1: were sleeping in motels a couple of years.

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Speaker 2: Yes, they've been through motels, they've been through transitional housing,

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Speaker 2: they've been through permanent housing. But the cohort that I've

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Speaker 2: been observing, particularly in Little toua community, they're very upfront

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Speaker 2: that they've been through all of it, quite a network

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Speaker 2: of housing and here they are back on the streets.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Now, why aren't they with family or friends or

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Speaker 1: being looked after somewhere?

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Speaker 2: In their view, they are with family and friends that

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Speaker 2: that is their final connection on the streets. Yeah, with

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Speaker 2: the one that they've been with for a number of

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Speaker 2: years that they deem themselves as far no or brother,

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Speaker 2: anything like that. But disconnect from their immediate fino usually

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Speaker 2: is attributed from a lot of the trauma that has

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Speaker 2: happened from childhood and they just haven't returned from going

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Speaker 2: to the streets at a young age. Most of them

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Speaker 2: have been on the streets from teenage to in their twenties.

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Speaker 2: So their idea of faro and connection and is the streets.

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Speaker 1: Are they actively choosing to be on the streets like

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Speaker 1: if they had the option, because obviously everybody somewhere in

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Speaker 1: their life is going to have a family member or

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Speaker 1: a friend with a house. But are they actually choosing

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Speaker 1: to sleep out on the streets?

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Speaker 2: Yes, they are. Do you think you stay out on

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Speaker 2: the street?

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Speaker 1: Can we actually blame the government all that? If this

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Speaker 1: is their own.

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Speaker 2: Choice, we know that they're out on the streets. But

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Speaker 2: what I understand affordable housing. I do understand those initiatives,

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Speaker 2: but the crisis that we've seen and that we need

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Speaker 2: to respond to these people will not get even near

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Speaker 2: affordable housing. It's mental health and addictions. And so the

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Speaker 2: ones that have come out of making less decisions to

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Speaker 2: stay out here is because a lot of their addictions

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Speaker 2: haven't been addressed. And I've been putting this across to

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Speaker 2: health for a long time. In the housing space. This

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Speaker 2: is not just housing. Yeah, this is a health issue.

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Speaker 1: Is the solution here of those homeless shelters.

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Speaker 2: Homeless shelters from when ross sleeping first started. We're not

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Speaker 2: appropriately resourced with the expertise that those require. So if

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Speaker 2: we're looking at the shelter environment again, we must at

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Speaker 2: people in this old school that are able to work

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Speaker 2: alongside practitioners of it's aod or social workers, but people

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Speaker 2: who understand that they're there to provide a safe space

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Speaker 2: for the street finer to come in, but also not

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Speaker 2: to take any bullshit. So we see in what I've

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Speaker 2: seen and to do again, I'll use that as an

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Speaker 2: example with what that's making myf on the side of

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Speaker 2: the road. They're doing all these you know, outrageous activities

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Speaker 2: on the side of the road, a lot of crime,

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Speaker 2: lot of violences and stopping you know, families going into town,

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Speaker 2: which is of course affecting the economy. But because are

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Speaker 2: so condensed, it's all in one area. That certainly happens

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Speaker 2: in the biggest cities like Tarmaqe Wellington and christ but

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Speaker 2: they're more spread out so it's quite convinent.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for talking us through it. I really appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: That's HIGHI to Barrett, who's the life y cees. For

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Speaker 1: more from Heather Duplassy Alan Drive, Listen live to news

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