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The number of young people experiencing homelessness in Auckland has reached a crisis point, a youth advocate says, and a hīkoi is being held to highlight the problem.
Youth development organisation Kickback actively monitors 140 young people in the city who do not have stable housing - some as young as 11 years old.
Its co-founder and general manager Aaron Hendry said a group of rangatahi are holding a hīkoi to end youth homelessness, walking from Karangahape Road to Britomart on Saturday.
"This hīkoi is about young people's voices being heard, standing up and speaking up and really putting attention to what is an escalating crisis in this country," he said.
"These are young people who do not have safe or stable housing. Many of them have had experiences where they've reached out for support from government agencies, where they've gone into Work and Income and asked for shelter, and been denied that support and had to sleep on the street as a result or stay in situations where they're really unsafe."
The latest data from outreach teams shows there was a 53 percent increase in people sleeping rough in Auckland between September last year and January - it led Auckland Council to to send a 'please help' letter to government.
In response to council's request for help, Housing Minister Chris Bishop said the country's housing crisis remains one of the government's key priorities.
"Our housing crisis manifests in several ways from very high prices for buyers, increasing rents and growing demand for social housing, and for some people, unmet housing need."
He said the government has prioritised ending "the large scale and long-term use of emergency housing", reducing the number of households in such housing in Auckland from 885 in November 2023 to 45 in January 2025.
At the same time, Bishop said the number of properties Kainga Ora manages increased by 2060.
He said the government "continues to prevent people needing emergency housing and to sustain households that have exited emergency housing".
Bishop said there are a range of services and supports in Auckland that help who experience chronic homelessness and aim to connect people with accommodation.
Hendry said changes to the emergency housing and welfare system failed to provide young people the support they needed when they were in crisis.
He said the $33 million for new boot camps set aside in the government's budget should be put towards addressing child poverty instead.
"What Kickback keeps calling for and our young people are demanding is a strong and clear strategy to prevent and end youth homelessness. There's some real meaningful actions the government could take if they wanted to solve this issue."
Hendry said that included developing crisis intervention services for young people to access support and shelter.
He also wanted the government to commit to legislation to ensure young people can access support and reinvest money back into building housing for youth.
"There is a lack of focus and response to this escalating crisis and there isn't significant resources going into solving it."
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