11 October 2013

Support for cross-party approach to end homelessness by 2020

The New Zealand Coalition to End Homelessness (NZCEH) supports Labour’s call for a cross party approach to ending homelessness by 2020.

World Homelessness Day was marked with a parliamentary breakfast cohosted by Jacinda Adern, Labour MP and Denise Roche, Green Party MP. Both MPs complimented community organisations throughout New Zealand trying to meet the basic human right of homeless people to be housed.

Dr Shiloh Groot, Tangata Whenua Co-Chair of the Coalition stated ‘The exposure and vulnerability of street homeless people is evident in the recent murders in Auckland, we as a country need to care for all our citizens’. Stephanie McIntyre, the Tangata Tiriti Co-Chair spoke of what a travesty it is that we have homelessness in New Zealand at all.

Dr Phillipa Howden-Chapman, the keynote speaker for the parliamentary breakfast, stated, ‘World Homelessness Day challenges us to think about what makes a home, what makes a community and how we can make having a home a right rather than a dream. All we need is the political will.’

ENDS

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