Heft Media & News
Not even the sky for shelter
A landmark New Zealand report into homelessness among women has been published. And it is horrifying, writes Kate Oktay.
Half the homeless population in New Zealand are women, indeed 50,000 women in Aotearoa define themselves as homeless.
"For too long, this has been an invisible issue," says Vic Crockford, director of the Coalition to End Women’s Homelessness, the organisation behind new research that reveals the scale of the problem.
"Understandably, people often think of men when they think of people experiencing homelessness, as we are often more likely to see a single man sleeping rough. In other countries that may be right, but not in New Zealand. In Aotearoa, it is half of the story."
‘Unhoused, unsafe’: Shining a light on NZ’s 57,000 homeless women
Women make up more than half of Aotearoa’s homeless population but there are no national policies or frameworks specifically aimed at women who are unhoused.
The housing system was “effectively flying gender blind”, which led to a new report by the Coalition to End Women’s Homelessness, launched on Thursday.
“The world we currently live in is one where too many of our women are unhoused, unnoticed, and unsafe,” according to the report Ngā Ara ki te Kāinga – Understanding Barriers and Solutions to Women's Homelessness in Aotearoa, commissioned by the coalition.
Safe rooms news ‘phenomenal’
Queenstown now has safe rooms available for victims of domestic violence.
The announcement was made at the 2024 Inspirational Women Awards and Gala for Women’s Refuge on Saturday night, which raised more than $23,000 for family violence victims in the Queenstown Lakes district.
Now in its third year, the event was founded by Julia Strelou, of Queenstown, to fundraise to establish a safe house in the district while also celebrating female change-makers — to date, it has raised almost $80,000 for Women’s Refuge Services and Central Lakes Family Services.
Interview with Folly editor, Emily Broadmore
Folly is an annual print only anthology of art, short stories, non-fiction and poetry produced in Wellington city. Unbound by academic affiliations, fiercely independent, and purposely not high brow, Folly is home to content which it describes as beautiful, sexy, funny, insightful and provocative.
Published in November each year, the 2024 issue has just been launched. I had a chat with Folly's editor, Emily Broadmore about why she chose to create a print journal in an increasingly digital world, how she selects the stories and what readers can expect.
What I learned as an OIA hunter
OPINION: A report released by the Clark Foundation on Monday considers the growing perception of corruption, including when it comes to political lobbying and access to official information.
Its foreword, by former attorney-general Chris Finlayson, speaks more directly – claiming continued misuse of the Official Information Act by ministers and their departments and a call to critically examine our commitment to transparency.
As a director of a business that works hard to advocate for a diverse range of clients to government, this report is timely and interesting. Much like our constitution, our official information systems have evolved via a set of accepted social norms rather than a set of hard and fast rules.
New study details harrowing experiences of homeless women
A new report has found some homeless women find it safer to sleep on the streets than at a shelter.
The study outlines harrowing experiences of violence and abuse in emergency and transitional housing, as well as more broad inequities women face in the housing system.
A group of sector leaders were prompted to commission the research after seeing firsthand that support is largely designed with men in mind.
Vic Crockford is the former chief executive of Community Housing Aotearoa, and leads the Coalition to end Women's Homelessness.
Death to the echo chamber
There's lots of talk around finding unity around at the moment ... various politicians here and around the world are promising to bring people together.
But it seems like it's not really happening, in fact if any anything, it feels like the political divide between left and right is getting worse. An opinion piece in the Sunday Star Times just this weekend examined
Titled Ending the echo chamber: How to find where left and right unite - was written by Emily Makere Broadmore.
Ending the echo chamber: How to find where left and right unite
OPINION: On the same day that I lunched in the Capital with a well-known left-leaning public intellectual, Act leader David Seymour was spotted on ThreeNews flicking through the pages of the newly released issue of Folly Journal.
My sister, an Aucklander oblivious to politics (although I assume she was aware of the hīkoi) messaged me excitedly. Folly's on tv! I took a photo!
As a Wellington-based strategist, I didn't bother explaining that a photo of Seymour, a politician intensely hated by the left, reading our luxuriously printed literary journal mightn't be great for Folly's reputation.
Win a literary bathrobe
There are various ways you can get a sense of the mood of our small island nation. One of those is by wandering into a flagship designer store in Auckland to see what’s being flogged off. “What’s the vibe in Auckland right now?” I asked a store manager recently as he adjusted the silk necktie on a mannequin.
“Everyone’s angry,” he responded, along with anecdotes about how people aren’t buying his expensive trinkets anymore because they can shop on Temu. I told him I was from Wellington, to which he replied, “Oh you have it 100 times worse then, everyone fucking hates each other down there right now.”
We need to write homeless women back into the story
OPINION: Imagine you have over $300 million to invest in critical infrastructure that transforms people’s lives.
Imagine your data tells you 50% of the people have very different needs from that infrastructure than the other half, but you ignore that detail.
That is the way we approach women’s homelessness in this country.
Every year, we invest over $300m in emergency housing grants, on top of significant investment in other housing subsidies. The last census found that 102,123 people identified as experiencing “severe housing deprivation” - the proxy we use for those living unhoused.