Short-term actions to support for people sleeping rough

Published 05 Sep 25

Today, the Government announced short-term actions to support people living without shelter, including people sleeping rough or people sleeping in cars.

The Government is investing $17 million to deliver targeted support in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch with a focus on people sleeping rough. These areas have seen the highest numbers of rough sleepers and have the capacity to scale up responses quickly.

Additional support

300 new social homes for people already getting support through Housing First

The Government is providing $7 million for 300 social housing places for people already getting support through Housing First.

We’ll do this by working with specific Housing First providers, who are also community housing providers, to lease homes from the private rental market. This means they can quickly find a suitable house that suits someone’s specific needs.

Learn more about Housing First

Supporting providers to deliver better local responses

The Government will provide $10 million to support providers delivering responses for people living without shelter or at imminent risk, in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Hamilton.

This aims to help people who are living in different situations, including people who are currently living rough in city centres or people temporarily living without shelter due to a life event.

We’ll work with these providers to build on existing services to help address gaps, and help deliver a better local response.

Improving existing programmes and support

Working together with the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), we’re also taking action to make the most out of our existing programmes and support by:

rebalancing transitional housing places to better match support services with the needs of rough sleepers, reducing turnaround times between households
strengthening guidance for staff on using discretion in assessing emergency housing grants
continuing to support clients to get into suitable accommodation, including a redirection of benefit for accommodation costs.

Read the Government's announcement(external link)