Ngā Ara ki te Kāinga: Understanding Barriers and Solutions to Women’s Homelessness
The stories of women as told in their words are woven with data from the government’s Integrated Data Infrastructure inspired by inspired by the He Awa Whiria model, which was originally developed by Professor Angus McFarlane and takes its name, and metaphorical context, from the Waimakariri River in the South Island/Te Waipounamu. The Waimakariri is a braided river, coming together at key points before moving apart again.
It shows that 50% of people experiencing homelessness in Aotearoa are women, and that their health and housing needs as women are not often being met. It also documents the disproportionate impact on wāhine Māori, who are over one third of women experiencing homelessness, single mothers, and - increasingly - older women.
It recommends four key actions for the Government:
All government agencies working with homelessness develop the policy and operational design frameworks and expertise to ensure housing policy addresses the needs of women. This will need to include better quality gender disaggregated data.
There is a national strategy specifically focused on women's homelessness that addresses the unique challenges faced by wāhine Māori, Pacific women, older women, single mothers, and other marginalised women and groups.
Using the social investment approach, that there are stronger partnerships between its agencies, community providers, Māori and iwi to provide coordinated, holistic support for homeless women that address the complex and diverse needs of homeless women, including mental health, addiction, domestic violence, and childcare support.
Again, taking a social investment approach, that there are targeted prevention and early intervention programmes and support for women at risk of homelessness, particularly older women facing financial insecurity, single mothers, and women experiencing domestic violence are prioritised.
A robust monitoring and evaluation framework to assess the effectiveness of interventions and policies targeting women's homelessness, including regularly reviewing and updating strategies based on emerging research and feedback from whānau and kaimahi, is created.
