6th August 2015

AUCKLAND CITY MISSION MEDIA RELEASE

Auckland City Mission ‘squatting’ on unused homepages to raise awareness

The Auckland City Mission is “cyber-squatting” on the .nz home pages of dozens of New Zealand organisations this week in an effort to raise awareness around homelessness in the city.

Missioner Dame Diane Robertson says the initiative, which involved uploading imagery and information about rough sleeping and the Mission’s services onto organisations’ unused .nz homepages, is aimed at sparking important conversations around the growing number of homeless people in Auckland.

“We wanted a campaign that was going to make people sit up and take notice of an important issue, which is why we have decided to use these organisations’ unused ‘homes’ for those who need them most - the homeless,” she says.

The Mission’s annual rough sleeper count shows a dramatic increase in the number of people sleeping on Auckland’s streets – a figure which has more than doubled in the past two years.

“The largest population of rough sleepers is in the Auckland CBD, though there are growing numbers in other parts of the city as well,” says Dame Diane, who also notes an increase in the number of people sleeping in vehicles and other temporary, sub-standard accommodation.

She says the cyber-squatting campaign is intended as an innovative way to raise awareness around the issue. Those wishing to remove the Mission’s content from their .nz homepages will simply be required to click an icon on their homepage, at which point the “squatter” will be removed.

• Donations can be made by going to http://www.aucklandcitymission.org.nz/

ENDS

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