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.”
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