Homelessness on the city’s streets
Heart of the City has been an active advocate to end homelessness in Auckland. As such we were proud to sponsor the Auckland Conversation on Homelessness on Thursday 23rd March, following the launch of the Housing First Auckland initiative by Hon Amy Adams, Minister for Social Housing, and Auckland Mayor Phil Goff.
Housing First works to end homelessness, working with people experiencing chronic homelessness in the city centre as well as provide additional wrap around services to address the causes of their homelessness. Housing First is a two-year pilot funded by the Government and Auckland Council and will initially focus on the City Centre, Central, West and South Auckland. Several community organisations are involved including Auckland City Mission, Affinity Services, Lifewise, LinkPeople and Vision West.
Mayor Phil Goff opened the event attended by over 500 people, including a number of Heart of the City’s members.
The keynote speaker was Dr Sam Tsemberis, the founder of Pathways to Housing in New York City, who shared his experience of how to end chronic homelessness using a Housing First model. He was joined by a panel including:
- Viv Beck, Chief Executive, Heart of the City
- Rau Hoskins, Chairperson, Te Matapihi
- Moira Lawler, Chief Executive, Lifewise
- Graham Bodman, General Manager, Arts Community and Events, Auckland Council
You can watch the Auckland Conversation on Homelessness in this video link:
https://conversations.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/events/homelessness-auckland
