The callous rhetoric emerging from this Government's housing ministers reveals a profound disconnect from the harsh realities facing thousands of New Zealanders. When politicians like Mark Mitchell and Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell suggest that homelessness is somehow a matter of personal choice, they perpetuate a dangerous myth that absolves the state of its fundamental responsibility to provide adequate housing for all citizens.
Yesterday, Stuff reported:
The mayor of Rotorua says the police minister was “well informed” with comments about rough sleeping as a “lifestyle choice” there.
There was a group of about 12 to 15 homeless people in Rotorua who were choosing to sleep on footpaths in the city centre, Mayor Tania Tapsell said.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell, at an event on Thursday to launch a “beat team” to patrol the city centre on foot, said many rough sleepers chose to be on the street.
Asked on Thursday how the new team of five constables and a sergeant would help with the issue, Mitchell said the officers knew most of the people, and their circumstances.
“A lot of rough sleepers have got somewhere they can go and sleep, but that's a lifestyle choice they choose to come out onto the street,” Mitchell said.
“There's a whole lot of reasons for that. Might be mental health reasons, or they just feel a sense of community when they come together.”
“I can't comment for every rough sleeper, but from my own experience, rough sleepers have got somewhere to go,” Mitchell said.
Tapsell said the minister’s comments were “well informed”, and based on what they’d been hearing on the ground in Rotorua.
Council staff had for three months been trying to support those people into housing, but they’d told her, local organisations, and media, that they were choosing to, or preferred to, sleep on the streets.
“Some also do have accommodation to go to,” Tapsell said.
This narrative isn't merely tone-deaf, it's actively harmful. The
assertion that people "choose" to sleep rough ignores the complex web of
circumstances that force individuals and families into homelessness:
job losses, family breakdown, mental health crises, and most critically,
the systematic dismantling of social safety nets that once provided a
pathway to stable housing.
The Government's approach to emergency housing provides a stark illustration of their ideological blindness. Rather than addressing the root causes of homelessness, officials have focused obsessively on reducing numbers through administrative sleight of hand. The target has been achieved early with the 3141 households in emergency housing in December 2023 reduced to just 591 a year later. This dramatic reduction sounds impressive until one examines the methodology: The rate of applications being declined has also almost tripled from 3% a month in the 2023 calendar year to 10% for August 2024.
The strategy is brutally simple: make it harder to access emergency housing, and the statistics improve. They've more than halved in the last year: in July 2024 there were 3,330 people in emergency housing, down from 7,554 in July 2023.
Emergency housing applications have plummeted from an average of 8,660 applications per month last year to under 4,000 per month now—a clear indication that people are being actively discouraged from seeking help. The Ministry of Social Development is now declining more than 90 emergency housing applications monthly because people have apparently "caused or contributed to their immediate need," a subjective criterion that places blame on vulnerable individuals, including women trying to escape domestic violence, rather than addressing systemic failures and a lack of investment.
But where have these people gone? The answer is grimly predictable: into cars, onto the streets, and into increasingly precarious arrangements that render them invisible to official statistics.
In Rotorua, the Government's flagship intervention has been equally callous. Rotorua is a focus for the government, who is cutting the number of motels contracted to provide emergency housing from 13 down to seven. They also plan to reduce this further to just four motels by mid-2025. This isn't housing policy; it's social cleansing dressed up as administrative efficiency.
The human cost of this approach became starkly apparent during "Operation Trolley," when police targeted homeless individuals using shopping trolleys to transport their possessions. Waiariki MP Rawiri Waititi's response to this operation captured the fundamental issue: homelessness represents governmental failure, not personal deficiency.
Meanwhile, the Government's housing construction programme has stagnated. According to Stats NZ, new dwelling consents nationwide in 2024 were down 9.8% on 2023. This decline comes precisely when New Zealand faces its most severe housing crisis in decades. The nation's housing stock has failed to keep pace with population growth, and the Government's response has been to reduce both public housing targets and support for private construction.
The economic environment has compounded these policy failures. Rising interest rates and construction costs have driven private developers from the market, while the Government has simultaneously reduced its own building commitments. This dual contraction has created a perfect storm of reduced supply precisely when demand remains acute.
The social implications extend far beyond individual hardship. When governments normalise homelessness through rhetoric about "choice," they erode the fundamental social contract that underpins democratic society. The suggestion that people voluntarily embrace destitution is not merely factually incorrect, it is morally reprehensible.
New Zealand once prided itself on being a nation where hard work and fair play guaranteed basic security. That promise has been systematically undermined by policies that prioritise fiscal austerity over human dignity. The current Government's approach represents ideological extremism dressed up as economic necessity.
The path forward requires acknowledging that housing is a human right, not a commodity to be rationed according to market whims. This means substantial investment in public housing, regulation of speculation that drives prices beyond the reach of ordinary families.
Until politicians abandon the cruel fiction that homelessness represents personal choice rather than policy failure, New Zealand will continue its descent from egalitarian society to stratified oligarchy. The question isn't whether we can afford to house all New Zealanders...it is whether we can afford not to.
