Homeless Kiwis flown back to NZ

File photo / The Aucklander

Homeless Kiwis living on the streets of Melbourne are being flown back to New Zealand courtesy of Australian charities, an Australian newspaper has reported.

Twelve rough-sleeping New Zealanders have been sent home with the assistance of Australian not-for-profit organisation Travellers Aid in the past three months at a cost of around NZD$4800.

In one case, a family of five found living in a car was flown back across the Tasman.

Travellers Aid chief executive officer Jodie Willmer told Melbourne's Herald Sun it was cheaper to fly them home than to put them up in a semi-permanent arrangement at a hotel.

"We can't, as a society, have people stranded in no-man's land without support," Ms Willmer said.

Begging has become an increasing problem in the city with 296 people charged last financial year according to police figures.

Salvation Army Major Brendan Nottle told the paper he had seen a "significant increase" in beggars over the past year and people see begging as an easy way to earn money.

"But it's definitely not an easy way, particularly for the guys that are really doing it tough - the guys with mental health issues.

The Herald Sun found beggars can earn up to NZD$370 a day, almost triple the daily pay of a worker on Australia's minimum wage.

The Salvation Army's Melbourne service had seen about 40 Kiwis this year, Major Nottle said, however this was only a fraction of the service's hundreds of clients.

"They just find themselves in fairly dire straits at times because they haven't done their homework before they arrive," Major Nottle said.

Last financial year, 14 Kiwis were repatriated and five other people returned to South Pacific island nations.

Hanover Welfare Services chief executive Tony Keenan said the charity occasionally paid to fly homeless people home to New Zealand and had also seen an increase in the numbers of Kiwis who need support.

Diane Robertson, the CEO of the Auckland City Mission, said what happens to those who have been sent back here depended on their circumstances.

"If they are homeless in Melbourne it may be because they don't have support networks there. They may have family support here," she said. "Some will come back and go back to their families and communities. Some may end up back on the streets."

Ms Robertson was unaware Australian charities were paying to repatriate Kiwi rough-sleepers until today. She said international homeless people were "not an issue" in Auckland and did not know how many were living on the city' streets.

Many of those from overseas who end up seeking help from the city mission had just arrived at the airport and were missing possessions, Ms Robertson said.

The mission had paid to help some of them get back home.

"And we have had people pay us back once they get home," she said.

Rather than from overseas, it was people from other parts of the country who were more likely to end up sleeping rough in Auckland, and the mission often pays to help them get back to their families in other centres.

"A lot of people who are homeless [in Auckland] do not originate from here," she said.

Unlike Melbourne, Ms Robertson said the numbers of homeless people in Auckland had remained "relatively stable", which she credited to the hard work of social organisations in the city.