Will’s Word: Auckland can’t police its way out of homelessness

How do we get on top of the homelessness crisis in Auckland CBD? I live smack bang in the CBD. I get it from both sides. On one hand, yes, the city needs to feel safe.

Summer's coming, tourists are arriving, businesses are gearing up. And just this week, there's the World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education in Tāmaki Makaurau. The city is jam-packed with tourists at the moment.

Sadly, just yesterday, I saw what looked to be a tourist being verbally abused. So I understand when Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s out here saying Auckland needs to get sorted. Fair. No one wants the downtown to feel run-down. But here's the thing, you can't just sweep people off the streets.

You can't shift the issue from Queen Street to another suburb and call it progress. Homelessness isn't a move-on problem. Homelessness, ironically, isn't an eviction notice to get up and get out. It's a housing problem, it's a mental health problem and it's an addiction problem.

It's a cost-of-living problem. Cracking down without giving people somewhere to go? I'm sorry, that's not a solution. That's optics. Yes, I do understand the pressure. I walk past the same doorways every day. I walk past the same noise every day. It can feel unsafe.

It can feel overwhelming. As someone who's up before dawn, I'm walking Queen Street early in the morning, sometimes 3am, sometimes 4am. There are times when I feel unsafe. But regardless of that, you can't just sweep people on.

So how do we get on top of this? We invest in housing before we enforce. We build support before we ban. We measure success not by how tidy the footpath looks, but by how many people we actually help off it. And right now, it seems like that's what's missing from the conversation.

That's Will's Word.

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