KEY POINTS:
It is easy to accuse the city council of not doing enough for the homeless after seeing a homeless person asleep in a doorway in the central business district.
The fact is it not the city council's role to provide services for homeless people. But it does have a role to play as a leader, advocate and facilitator for better services, and Auckland City Council takes this responsibility seriously.
In 2005, acting with all the agencies in the city dealing with the problem of homelessness, the council developed a homeless action plan in a bid to address gaps in services for people living on the city's streets.
It is intended to act as a catalyst, encouraging community organisations, corporate bodies and central government agencies to fund work and provide services that will have positive results for homeless people.
Overall, $135,000 was set aside to fund the project over three years.
At a practical level, the plan has enabled the council to work with partner agencies to improve and expand services for homeless people, to provide leadership, training and collaboration with local and national workers for the homeless, and to take on an advocacy role with central government to improve policy and funding for this issue.
As part of the action plan, research commissioned by Auckland City Council identified gaps in services, including a lack of emergency accommodation and 24-hour-support services for homeless people.
This led to the establishment and recent launch of Project Outreach.
The service is a partnership between Auckland City Council, Auckland City Mission, Methodist Mission Northern and the Salvation Army.
Auckland City Mission is the lead provider for the first year of the two-year initiative, followed by the Methodist Mission Northern leading the second year. All three social service agencies provide financial and human resources towards Project Outreach.
The Auckland City Homeless Action Plan identified a mobile outreach service as one of the strategies that could reduce the number of homeless people and rough sleepers in the centre of Auckland city.
Auckland City Council and the project partners see this as a practical and compassionate service for homeless people and rough sleepers.
The service will increase professional contact in the community with these people, who do not usually access services.
The mobile outreach team provides services including individual situation assessments, specific support service information, and immediate contact and crisis referrals.
The team is led by a qualified social/community worker, employed for 20 hours a week.
A referral system has also been established with agencies such as the Auckland District Health Board, Work and Income and Housing New Zealand.
While other large cities in New Zealand shy away from the issue, Auckland City Council has hosted two national homeless forums in the past two years.
At those conferences 200 professionals and volunteers working in this area were able to share experiences and make strategies for the future.
The city has also provided specialist training for ambassadors, park rangers, library staff and local agency workers on how to deal with homeless people in public spaces.
This has included providing staff with information on where to refer homeless people for help or key services. The council has also provided this training for the staff of AUT.
Homelessness is an enormously complex social issue with no quick fix.
In Auckland city we have up to 300 people living on the streets. It is not an illegal activity, and neither is it generally a lifestyle choice. It is more often the result of physical, emotional or sexual abuse.
Many homeless people have also experienced problems with domestic violence and mental health.
The council receives very few complaints annually about homeless people and numbers have dropped since the council became involved with the issue.
However, the problem of homelessness must also be acknowledged on a national level.
The Government does not currently have a policy on the issue. Auckland City Council is advocating that the Government plays its part and funds an appropriate national response.
In Britain and Australia, programmes which have reduced homelessness and supported people to become part of mainstream communities have been successful only with central and local government working hand in hand to find and fund solutions.
But such success can occur only with a level of tolerance and understanding by the wider public about the complexities of the issue.
The council has played a constructive role in addressing the issue of homelessness both locally and nationally, and is committed to ensuring that by the time we showcase our city with the Rugby World Cup in 2011, we will have a city where homeless people have access to all the services they require.
* Dr Cathy Casey chairs the Auckland City Council's Community Development and Equity Committee.
