Youth Homeless Summit appeals for greater attention to plight of young people

"When was the last time you had to think about whether you were allowed to feel safe? Not whether you were safe, but whether you could allow yourself to believe that you were safe?"

Those were the opening words of 19-year-old Anaru Mihaere (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa), who challenged a room of more than 100 housing and youth advocates to consider the realities faced by young people experiencing homelessness.

"When was the last time you sat down to eat and had to worry about whether there was enough food?

"When was the last time you wanted desperately, just one moment, one single moment, where you didn't have to worry about anything and could just simply breathe?

"For me, as a young person who grew up in the care of Oranga Tamariki and experienced homelessness, these were some of the hardest questions I had to live with."

Anaru's kōrero set the tone for the country's first Youth Homelessness Summit, organised by youth homeless collective Manaaki Rangatahi and held in Auckland on Friday.

New research estimates about 12,200 rangatahi aged 16-24 experienced homelessness or severe housing instability in March 2023 - almost four times the number captured through direct housing evidence.

About two-thirds - or 8121 young people - experienced hidden homelessness, with their circumstances not reflected in conventional homelessness data.

Commissioned by Manaaki Rangatahi and conducted using Stats NZ's Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), the research also found rangatahi Māori were over-represented at about 2.3 times their share of the population.

Rangatahi Māori are more than five times as likely to experience hidden homelessness or housing deprivation, according to research lead Oliver Vovchenko.

Mihaere told RNZ the figures reflected a reality that many young people navigated without adequate support.

"In neglecting youth, you're neglecting Aotearoa's future," he said.

Mihaere was one of seven rangatahi who shared their experiences during a youth panel discussion, where the kōrero quickly turned from the scale of the problem to what needed to change.

Rangatahi and youth advocate Platinum questioned why youth homelessness did not receive greater attention.

"The biggest question that us rangatahi are really asking is why doesn't it matter enough?

"Homelessness is the consequence of the government's disservice and failure to look after us rangatahi, and look after our people in general."

Mihaere said services needed to be designed around what young people actually wanted, rather than being labelled as youth-focused.

"We have a lot of organisations in general that are very rangatahi-based, but they're not focused on rangatahi.

"They offer a lot of rangatahi services, but they don't actually talk to the rangatahi about what they want."

He said youth housing providers also struggled with limited funding and capacity, leaving many young people without anywhere to turn.

"Age shouldn't matter, when it comes to experience. Everyone has experience, all of us have experience.

"We are all experts in our own lives."

His hope was for a country "where homelessness isn't a problem because it isn't existing", and where young people and their whānau can live without constantly worrying about the safety of their futures.

Another rangatahi panelist, Zebion from Grace Foundation, spoke about being kicked out of home at a young age, and spending years moving between houses and sleeping on the streets.

By the time he was 16-17, he had turned to drugs and alcohol, and eventually lost contact with his whānau.

He later went to prison, where he became sober, and said finding support through Grace Foundation helped him rebuild his life.

"Once I got here, I realised that I was missing a lot of routine, structure, stability in my life that was accessible, if I had just asked for help," he told RNZ.

Zebion said young people needed more places to turn to, like services where they could connect with people who had experienced similar circumstances.

His message to other rangatahi struggling with homelessness was that "you're not alone, you don't have to do it alone".

Another Grace Foundation panelist said youth homelessness should matter to everyone, because without a stable home or support, young people could become more vulnerable to influences that led them into crime.

"There's a lot of us that come from homelessness that may lead to a lot of youth crimes, because we have no home environment or someone there for us, so we're out and about in the streets," he said.

"Mixed with the wrong people, start doing bad choices, because you know it's uncomfortable, because you have no-one to guide you, because there's a lot of bad people being out in the streets."

He said if rangatahi had that opportunity to get off the streets at a young age, it could prevent them from going down the wrong path.

Children's Commissioner Jane Searle attended the kaupapa, and said the gap between what was happening on the frontline and what was reaching decision-makers in Wellington was too wide.

"I often see the irony in the issue of youth homelessness, and that is often not seen, not spoken about and very misunderstood, yet it is casting a long shadow over the lives of the future of this country."

She said homelessness affected far more than a young person's ability to access somewhere to sleep - it also affected their dignity, identity, connection to whānau and ability to participate in society.

Manaaki Rangatahi is calling for a legally recognised right to adequate housing, legislation preventing government agencies from discharging young people into homelessness and sustained investment in youth housing services.

It also wants a national youth strategy developed alongside rangatahi, Māori and Pacific communities.