Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Tania Tapsell: Rotorua Mayor on the increase in homelessness and rough sleeping

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Tania Tapsell: Rotorua Mayor on the increase in homelessness and rough sleeping · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Finally we got some numbers on homelessness and not that
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: pretty Nearly five thousand kiwis a living across the country. Now,
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  Speaker 1: we looked at the census data that's the most recent
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  Speaker 1: and solidly reliable, a thirty seven percent jump between twenty
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: eighteen and twenty twenty three. Auckland has seen a spike.
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  Speaker 1: Christ Church up Taranaki up a two hundred and fifty
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  Speaker 1: fifty percent in just six months. One of the regions
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  Speaker 1: facing homelessness is Rota do Atania Tapsle's the mayor with
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  Speaker 1: me now, Hi Tanya, good morning, Good to have you
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  Speaker 1: on the show. Do you think it's going up in
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  Speaker 1: your area.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we've actually had targeted intervention to get it down,
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  Speaker 2: but what we have seen is probably there's a lot
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  Speaker 2: of transient people across the country, so you know as
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  Speaker 2: emergency house, your motile's clothes, or they're not able to
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  Speaker 2: find accommodation. They're starting to go to other regions. And
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  Speaker 2: it's been interesting because we've recently had the local government
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  Speaker 2: conference where I spoke with other mayors who were saying,
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  Speaker 2: hey we get in your homeless or hey they're coming
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  Speaker 2: from Auckland again. So I think it's good that the
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  Speaker 2: government's looking at a national approach because you know what
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  Speaker 2: blew my mind. At present, over five hundred and fifty
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  Speaker 2: million dollars it's spent annually.
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  Speaker 1: On this half a billion bucks we're spending on homelessness agencies,
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  Speaker 1: multiple agencies, transitional housing, housing first, rapid rehousing, other support services.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think more because this will inevitably be the
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  Speaker 1: call Tanya, we need more money for more wrap around services.
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  Speaker 1: Is that going to solve it?
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  Speaker 2: No? I don't. And actually what I really acknowledge Minister
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  Speaker 2: Bishop and also Minister paultucker On is when I looked
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  Speaker 2: at their latest report that's come out, they're really focusing
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  Speaker 2: on funding what works, so not only about better utilizing
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  Speaker 2: existing programs quote, but also funding what works. And this
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  Speaker 2: is actually really smart because we've seen the significant waste
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  Speaker 2: of money on emergency housing motiles where the motalitas are
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  Speaker 2: the only ones who seding. They're getting really rich millions
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  Speaker 2: of dollars a year, and actually it's bad for the
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  Speaker 2: communities and it's not safe for those in the homes.
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  Speaker 2: So definitely the housing growth program is working. That's why
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  Speaker 2: we've seen a significant reduction in udor Tudor. We almost
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  Speaker 2: finished all of our emergency housing motils by the way,
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  Speaker 2: that's great, but of what we really need to do,
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  Speaker 2: and what the government has been pretty good at, even
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  Speaker 2: on Board, is focusing on how do we stop this
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  Speaker 2: like for good. It's not only about addressing the urgent issue,
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  Speaker 2: but how do we go, Hey, there's a real problem
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  Speaker 2: in our country. How do we stop people being at
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  Speaker 2: risk of homeless and when they do come up on
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  Speaker 2: the systems, how do we assist them appropriately?
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  Speaker 1: You said that at the start of this interview about
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  Speaker 1: people coming between Who are these people that go between regions?
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  Speaker 2: So it was quite interesting. In the report as well,
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  Speaker 2: they looked at the demographic breakdowns of those who are
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  Speaker 2: living without shelter, and the median age was actually fifty
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  Speaker 2: five years and often the biggest reason was, and I
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  Speaker 2: think it was a round about sety percent off the
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  Speaker 2: top of my head, was people who have had a
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  Speaker 2: relationship breakdown or a breakup, And honestly, that's what I
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  Speaker 2: was hearing from the people in the motowns as well.
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  Speaker 2: So you know, people are living tough, they're going week
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  Speaker 2: to week and sometimes there is a genuine need for
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  Speaker 2: transitional housing. But what I acknowledge is that there's a
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  Speaker 2: clear message that we will end the large scale use
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  Speaker 2: of motowns for emergency.
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  Speaker 1: Howping, that's definitely on the way out town. You thank you, Tonya.
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  Speaker 1: Tap sword off through a met.
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  Speaker 2: For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 3:35
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• 3:39
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