In a move that reeks of political obfuscation, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka has sat on a critical homelessness insights report for over a month, refusing to make it public while claiming he’s still “seeking official advice” on its contents. This delay isn't just bureaucratic dawdling; it’s a calculated attempt to bury inconvenient truths about the National-led government’s role in exacerbating New Zealand’s homelessness crisis.
On Wednesday, Stuff reported:
Labour is demanding the release of a government briefing on homelessness, warning it may confirm that record-level homelessness has worsened under the National-led coalition’s watch.
“Everyone is saying that homelessness is going up at unprecedented levels,” Labour’s housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. “Given that he [Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka] is the only one - alongside the prime minister and the minister of housing - that is denying homelessness is going up, I’m not surprised he’s pretty reluctant to release the report.”
Potaka received the latest homelessness insights report from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) last month, part of a regular six-monthly series monitoring the effects of government housing policy to reduce the number of people living in emergency housing through toughening the entry criteria.
But he has yet to make the document public, saying he is still seeking official advice on its contents, although he has acknowledged anecdotal evidence pointed to a rising trend.
As the streets of Auckland and Wellington swell with those left without shelter, the government’s refusal to release this data speaks volumes about it prioritising optics over people.
The Coalition of Chaos' policies have systematically dismantled the safety nets that once offered hope to the most vulnerable. Their aggressive push to slash emergency housing numbers, celebrated by them as a 75% reduction in households living in motels (from 3,141 in December 2023 to 591 by January 2025), masks a grim reality.
While Tama Potaka trumpets that 2,124 children have moved from motels to
“homes,” the government admits it doesn’t track where 20% of these
families, roughly 510 households, have ended up. The evidence points to a
spike in rough sleeping, with Auckland Council reporting a 53% rise in
people living on the streets between September 2024 and January 2025.
Wellington’s Downtown Community Ministry also noted a 33% increase in
rough sleepers from October to December 2024.
Changes to emergency housing eligibility have tightened the screws on those already at breaking point. Stricter criteria mean applicants are increasingly declined or deemed ineligible, with some turned away because their decision to flee domestic violence was seen as “contributing” to their homelessness, a grotesque misinterpretation that Potaka has publicly disavowed but still persists.
On June 16, Stuff reported:
Tama Potaka denies blame on homelessness, as Women’s Refuge raises alarm
Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka is denying his policies are to blame for reports of increased homelessness or domestic violence victims being denied emergency housing.
...
Women’s Refuge says access to emergency housing an issue
Potaka was also questioned about reports the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) had denied emergency housing to women attempting to escape domestic violence.
Last week, Stuff heard from charities across the country that raised concerns about difficulties accessing emergency housing for people leaving violent homes.
The Ministry of Social Development’s scrapping of the first phase of its “early interventions” programme, meant to prevent homelessness, was ludicrously justified by an overwhelming workload tied to Jobseeker benefit changes, leaving vulnerable Kiwis to fend for themselves. These policies, coupled with the government’s refusal to reinstate a legal obligation for MSD to grant emergency housing, have created a revolving door of hardship.
Compounding this crisis is National’s gutting of state housing. Thousands of planned public housing builds, with Kāinga Ora halting the development of 212 housing projects that would have delivered 3479 new homes, have been cancelled, with funding for community housing providers slashed to a measly 750 new places annually. This is a far cry from the ambitious programmes under the previous government, which, while not perfect, recognised the need for a robust public housing stock to address the 112,496 people (2.3% of the population) estimated to be severely housing deprived in the 2023 Census.
#BHN Is the Govt hiding homeless numbers | Cost of living gets worse | Seymour wants karakia gone https://t.co/HW9RyR409y
— Pat Brittenden (@patbrittenden) July 17, 2025
This lack of scrutiny allows National to manipulate the narrative, presenting their emergency housing cuts as a success while ignoring the human cost. Worse, the government’s broader pattern of dismantling statistical transparency, evident in their lax tracking of where families go post-emergency housing and cancelling of future Censuses, suggests a deliberate strategy to obscure data as homelessness and other social conditions worsen.
New Zealand deserves better. Potaka’s refusal to release this report isn't just a failure of transparency; it’s a betrayal of the approximately 100,000 Kiwis, including 60,000 Māori, grappling with homelessness. The government’s policies, stricter emergency housing rules, cancelled state house builds, and a punitive welfare system, are driving people to the streets. It’s time for accountability, not obfuscation. But we are unlikely to see any change for the better while National is in power.
