Swept into the Cracks.

POLITICS / SOCIETY

On the 22nd of February, Ministers Paul Goldsmith and Mark Mitchell announced an amendment to the Summary Offences Act: the “Move-on Orders”. Following this announcement, thousands across the nation—including here in Ōtautahi—took to the streets to oppose the decision.

Move-on Orders grant Police the ability to demand any individual, above the age of fourteen, to vacate a public area. The person must then remain at a “reasonable” distance, specified by the officer, for up to 24 hours. If they refuse, they risk being fined up to $2,000 or face a three-month prison sentence.

In theory, the Orders provide Police with the, previously unprecedented, ability required to manage the “antisocial”, “disorderly”, and “disruptive” behaviour on our streets. However, closer inspection reveals holes in this justification: disorderly and offensive behaviour is already punishable under Sections 3 and 4 of the Summary Offences Act, which covers minor criminal offences aimed at public order and nuisance. Additionally, in 2025, Auckland—the city which the Move-on Orders were originally restricted to—saw its lowest number of public order and safety offence proceedings in a decade.

Why are these move-on orders still necessary then? The legislation also explicitly applies to any form of begging, rough sleeping, and all behaviour which indicates an “intent to inhabit a public place”. Those who “sleep rough” live on the street with no shelter, or improvised shelter, facing the harshest consequences of homelessness. Yet, they are one of the most stigmatised groups in New Zealand today, often violently pushed to the margins of society.

The true nature of the amendment is hidden under the guise of ensuring "public safety”, though its effect is far more malicious. The orders give the government a broom to sweep its victims under the rug. This amendment is the cherry on top of this government’s unwaveringly ruthless pattern of policy decisions which have caused an exponential increase in rough sleeping.

While it is difficult to collect precise data on rates of homelessness, nearly every area in the country has recorded an increase in rough living since National’s Coalition came to power. Auckland has seen its numbers of rough sleeping more than double, from 426 in September 2024 to 940 in September 2025. Here in Ōtautahi, community provider Christchurch City Mission reported an increase in rough sleeping of 270 from September 2024 to March 2025.

In their June 2025 Homelessness insights report, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development suggested that this increase could be attributed to “wider social and economic factors, higher unemployment, rental inflation, higher rates of family violence and methamphetamine use.”

These factors alone being the primary cause of such a sharp increase is unconvincing. We should have seen proportionate increase in social housing waitlists and demand for emergency housing. Instead, since 2023, there has been a decline in the amount of people entering the social housing waitlist and, since 2021, total emergency housing usage has continuously decreased. This discrepancy raises questions: why are these housing support services not being utilised when people need them now more than ever?

Emergency housing is a last resort for people who have absolutely nowhere else to stay. Those who apply for emergency housing grants are in dire need, and have exhausted all other options for accommodation. As a result, the rate of rejection for these applications is extremely low.

In August 2024, the government made significant changes to the qualifying criteria for these grants. Since then, the rejection rate has skyrocketed—it reached 37.7% in September 2025, a nearly tenfold increase from 4% in January 2024. Prior to the criteria changes, MSD could not decline emergency housing grants if “serious hardship” or risks to the welfare of applicants and their immediate family would be caused or increased.

Now, people who are in desperate need of a safe, warm place to stay are being turned away on grounds that defy both compassion and common sense. For example, 22.5% of applicants from August 2024 were rejected as their “circumstances could have been reasonably foreseen”. This includes cases where MSD workers rejected applicants who “contributed to their own homelessness”.

To suggest that homelessness is a matter of choice is a deeply disingenuous claim, a concerning distraction from the reality that the state has both the capacity and responsibility to ensure universal access to shelter. The structural instability of our institutions should never be framed as a personal fault of those who suffer from their inability (or unwillingness) to provide essential services.

The increase in rough living we have seen was not an unexpected consequence. In a supplementary analysis by MSD officials, Ministers were explicitly warned, several times, that tightening access to emergency housing without adequate housing supply would “increase the risk of homelessness, rough sleeping, people living in cars, overcrowding, and…unsafe situations.” They proceeded with full awareness that this policy would create more homelessness. The Salvation Army’s 2025 “State of the Nation” report confirmed that these changes were indeed “a key contributor to rising street homelessness and housing insecurity”.

The government isn’t just kicking our homeless whānau to the curb. They are actively sabotaging the public housing pipeline. An independent review of Kāinga Ora, the Crown entity responsible for providing social housing, in 2024 led Minister Chris Bishop to cancel projects that could have provided around 3500 homes. We are overwhelmingly short of social housing—in numbers of the tens of thousands. As of June 2025, they are also selling vacant land and existing homes which were meant for over 19,000 people on the Housing Register. The number of homes already sold is not publicly available. The government deliberately chose to diminish our already struggling housing stock, knowing that it has sentenced thousands to living on the streets.

When Justice Minister Goldsmith says our city centres are becoming “places of intimidation”, he’s right. The truly intimidating presence on our streets is state-sanctioned violence against people who have nowhere to go. Instead of funding known solutions and housing support, this Coalition of Cruelty has doubled down on its name by punishing our whānau on the streets for the crime of existing, giving them no path for the future.