Consider the unnamed woman, recently discovered lifeless in the public toilets at Hauraki Corner shops, a grim sentinel of the streets, her body found by a cleaner amid the detritus of daily commerce.
On October 2, the Rangitoto Observer reported:
Homeless woman found dead in public toilet block
A woman was found dead in the public toilets at the Hauraki Corner shops last week.
Shocked and saddened shop-owners told the Observer a cleaner found her body.
Her death comes as the wider Takapuna area grapples with increasingly visible homelessness, as was covered in an Observer backgrounder last issue.
With more people living on local streets, some with complex needs and mental health issues, community and church groups are attempting to raise funds to employ a “navigator” to help them connect with services.
Just months earlier, in a parallel tragedy, an elderly man, Jules Turk, died in the cold near a bus stop in Remuera where he often slept, his frail form a haunting reminder of how exposure to the elements takes a terrible toll on the homeless.
Through tragic circumstances, they both hailed from the swelling ranks of rough sleepers in New Zealand, their ends not in the warmth of care but in the cold anonymity of public infrastructure. Devonport-Takapuna Local Board chair Mel Powell captured the horror: "Imagine dying in a public toilet. What a terrible way for a precious life to end." These deaths are no anomalies; they are the foreseeable harvest of policy choices that prioritise fiscal austerity over human dignity.
This coalition of chaos government, led by the National Party since late 2023, bears direct culpability. In a move decried as heartless by frontline advocates, it has tightened eligibility for emergency housing, demanding applicants prove they have not "contributed" to their plight, a bureaucratic gauntlet that scrutinises desperation rather than alleviating it. From 26 August 2024, these changes have seen thousands of applications denied assistance, thrusting more souls onto the streets as motels, once a flawed but vital bridge, are shuttered.
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka defend this as "firm but fair," yet their reluctance to link it to surging rough sleeping rings completely hollow. Potaka concedes "many" attribute the rise to these rules, but insists it's "not just down to one thing" a deflection that ignores the chorus of providers decrying the policy as "very, very harsh." Bishop, meanwhile, flatly denies any causal thread, citing official reports that deem attribution "not possible." Such denialism isn't mere oversight; it's complicity in the escalation...perhaps even an intentional cruel policy to punish the poor for being poor.
Ex-NZME Political Editor Jason Walls on TVNZ 1News allowed Luxon to lie about homelessness tonight -ignoring community feedback & months of news reports on Auckland homelessness caused by National #nzpol pic.twitter.com/AtUQof5Ai7
— Mountain_Tui (@Mountain_Tui) October 6, 2025
Compounding this failure, the government has slashed Kāinga Ora's pipeline, cancelling 60% of planned 2025 social housing projects, 1,019 units evaporated in a puff of fiscal review guided by the government's unrelenting pursuit for further cuts to the social safety net. This at a time when New Zealand's housing shortage gnaws relentlessly at the most vulnerable is not good policy making.
The coalition's vaunted "better social housing" rhetoric rings false when viewed against the reality: while emergency motel numbers have plummeted from 4,000 in September 2023 to under 500 by December 2024, rough sleeping has surged, 90% in Auckland alone since September 2024. Across the country, Stats NZ figures show that 112,000 New Zealanders are now severely housing deprived, roughly 2% of the population.
Nationally, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development's June 2025 insights report lays bare the crisis: nearly 5,000 people have been identified as now living without shelter, a marked increase from prior years, with 985 Housing First clients languishing on waitlists and unemployment, which is adding to people's housing insecurity, ticking up to 5.1%. The government cannot claim that their policies haven't contributed to this problem. The Salvation Army's State of the Nation 2025 echoes this: while tamariki Māori in state care dip slightly, overall homelessness swells, driven by a lack of government assistance and unaffordable private rents.
Lurking on the horizon is an even graver spectre: the plight of our elders, particularly in light of the government axing thousands of state house builds. Retirement Commissioner Jane Wrightson warns of a "potential disaster," with rising living costs and stagnant superannuation payments poised to propel pensioners into homelessness, a cohort already struggling to pay the bills. As one in five over-65s teeters on financial precipices, many driven to despair by the cost of living crisis, the coalition's housing retrenchment risks a further tsunami of evictions.
Yesterday, 1 News reported:
Retirement Commissioner worried more older people will end up homeless
More retirees could be out on the street unless there’s urgent Government intervention, according to the Retirement Commissioner.
Jane Wrightson is backing a petition organised by the Christchurch Methodist Mission that is calling for action to address the housing crisis facing older people.
"There's some levers Government can pull. One is getting a long-term housing plan that doesn't get tipped out every time there's a new government," Wrightson said.
Potaka and Bishop's steadfast refusal to own the fallout, dismissing links as "anecdotal" despite mounting evidence, even from official statistics, reveals a government more attuned to reading spreadsheets than seeing what's really happening in New Zealand. Their policies, cloaked in promises of market-led growth, instead entrench a vicious cycle: fewer homes built, stricter aid thresholds, and a housing market that devours the vulnerable.
Labour's Kieran McAnulty correctly laid the blame at the feet of the current government, saying: "We have known homelessness has been rising since National came into government but Christopher Luxon, Chris Bishop and Tama Potaka have consistently denied it."
New Zealand, a land of plenty for some, has become a graveyard for the forsaken. The Hauraki woman and the Remuera man did not choose their fates; the system chose their undignified deaths for them, through neglect masquerading as reform.
Until this coalition of chaos confronts its role, reversing cuts, rebuilding state housing, and restoring emergency lifelines, we court more such tragedies. A compassionate nation would demand better. It is time our leaders listened, before the streets claim yet another soul.
