The scheme, known as Housing First, is funded in other New Zealand cities.
Speaking in advance of the Green Party-organised hui, Dunedin Green MP Francisco Hernandez said the scheme ‘‘needs to get to Dunedin’’.
‘‘We need to support the most vulnerable people first, with wraparound support.’’
Mr Hernandez also called for a reversal of a slowdown in government funding of Kāinga Ora state housing, claiming it
had ‘‘contributed to the desperation of too many people in New Zealand’’.
Dunedin City Council announced last week it was going to deliver a homeless outreach service that aims to support pathways into housing.
The council’s ‘‘biggest concern’’ regarding housing was the lack of government leadership and support, she said.
‘‘It’s been hugely disappointing to see the stopping of Kāinga Ora building projects in Dunedin and I’d like to see the Housing First model becoming available here with government support.’’
The city’s housing action plan also needed updating with ‘‘stronger and executable actions to help reduce homelessness’’.
Multiple evaluations of Housing First, by academics abroad and in New Zealand, have found the scheme is successful at housing vulnerable people, while also decreasing spending on hospital care, mental health facilities and the criminal justice system.
University of Otago public health research fellow Clare Aspinall, who has researched Housing First, said it was ‘‘effective in addressing homelessness and improving health and social outcomes for people when the principles are fully implemented and adapted to the local context.’’
Drawing on Māori cultural principles was critical, plus ‘‘adequate government funding, rent subsidies and new housing, paired with adequate, intensive, and flexible long-term support services. Such support means using a multi-disciplinary team approach, including peer support from people who have also been homeless’’.
Mr Hernandez stressed there were additional smart and environmentally friendly solutions to increase efficiency of government funding of homes.
Noting cases of overcrowding in Kāinga Ora Dunedin houses, he said the agency should be allowed to extend houses, where plots allowed, if a family grew.
‘‘We need more investment in housing stock but we also need flexibility about how to grow it ... building extensions on sites where appropriate is a good way to quickly and easily boost the housing stock without buying more land.’’
Kāinga Ora has previously said it does not extend homes.
Mr Hernandez also called for improvements to renters’ rights, including an end to no-cause evictions, a rule reinstated by the government last year.
‘‘In many cases, landlords are discriminating ... it is really unfortunate and we need to call it out and stop it.’’
He recalled his experience of Dunedin rental accommodation, during his days at Otago University, saying one flat was ‘‘colder inside than outside’’.
However, he stressed that people in the worst housing were often those with vulnerabilities, including disability or illness.
‘‘It’s shocking. Some of the most vulnerable people are in housing that is so poor it is contributing to sickness. It entrenches and compounds inequality. The private market is not meeting the needs of the most vulnerable.’’
