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Families, Not Just Individuals Sleeping Rough

2 May, 2016

For immediate release

Families, Not Just Individuals Sleeping Rough


Reports in the media this week around an increasing number of families being found living in their cars has heightened concern from the Salvation Army and other groups such as Gimme Shelter that issues of higher rents and living costs are forcing more that just stereotypical rough sleeping homeless out onto the streets.


An estimation by Gimme Shelter using census data and population growth believes that as many as 6,700 people may be sleeping rough under the Statistics NZ definition of an individual living without shelter, or in makeshift shelter. These include situations such as living on the street or inhabiting improvised dwellings such as living in a shack or car.


The Salvation Army says it gave food parcels to 9 per cent more families in the first three months of this year than it did in the same period last year, reversing a slight decline in the previous year. This anecdotal view seems in line with ever growing rough sleepers evident on city streets and at food banks.


James Crow from Gimme Shelter believes that a lack of definitive data on the size of the national issue is holding back the creation of government policies targeted directly at supporting the homeless and that many more will fall through the cracks if this work is not done quickly.


“When Gimme Shelter looked overseas we could see that these issues of supporting the most vulnerable in our communities never improved without government mandated policy that directly targeted support for the homeless.”

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New social initiative Gimme Shelter launched its crowdfunding campaign to help end homelessness via definitive data collection in April to great success.

James, Gimme Shelter’s mastermind and best known for co-founding Fairtrade ice block company Nice Blocks and dairy free milk business Little Island Coconut Creamery with Tommy Holden, is confident his approach is a much needed piece of the puzzle.

“When Tommy and I began our business we could see that support and investment weren’t going to come our way without good data on the opportunity and a solid plan. This feels very much where the issue of homelessness policy is sitting. It just needs good information and a push to get the ball rolling.”

What James sees within the homeless sector is that good data is lacking and this affects everything downstream, including policy, funding and public engagement.

So what will Gimme Shelter do?

Through the creation of a mobile phone app that will allow any member of the public or community group to survey a rough sleeper they may know and securely upload that data to the cloud for later analysis, this data can then be used to assess and attend to the most vulnerable first and importantly to understand the size of the issue.

The PledgeMe campaign aims to raise at least $30,000 to develop the Homeless And Rough Sleepers Health (H.A.R.S.H) survey for roll-out on World Homeless Day on October 10th this year.

“We want to make the solution to homelessness fun and engaging, also the rewards for donating are nothing to be sniffed at with fellow businesses from around the country stepping up and offering everything from tofu salad and chocolate coconut milk to vouchers from fashion houses and landscaping consults from award winning designers. But of course the best reward is knowing we are looking at the bigger picture and providing something that is highly needed but so far we don’t have: good information.”


ends

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