Homeless shelters for men are in demand as homelessness in Wellington increases
Luke Williams, Jamie Siaosi, Kawana Pence and Rye Pou have been living on the streets for more than three years, and they all say that it's safer to be out there on the street than in the few homeless shelters that there are around Wellington.
Rye says “It is a lot harder for us. They say we try our best. I've been waiting on Housing New Zealand for five months now, I've been a street kid since I can remember, but it's a struggle for us to get a place because people say they’re going to help and we go through so many people but actions speak more than words.”
The homeless shelters that Te Kāea spoke to in Wellington, have said that one of the big issues that they're noticing is that men struggle the most to find housing.
Wellington City Council say that they have a homelessness strategy in place which is currently being implemented. Their priority is about finding long term accommodation for people and that creating more night shelters is not the solution to the homelessness problem.