Twyford calls for housing state of emergency

“The latest independent research from Otago University says that there are about 41,000 New Zealanders who are homeless,” Mr Twyford told Q+A’s Jessica Mutch. “That includes people that are living in campgrounds, entire families squashed into the single room of a shared house. And this is a social crisis.”

Mr Twyford was responding to a story by One News political reporter Katie Bradford, looking a growing homelessness problem in the tourism hotspot of Taupo, as well as international news reports about New Zealand homelessness in the likes of The Guardian and Al Jazeera.

But Mr Twyford said it’s not about how the world sees New Zealand, but about immediate action.

“Look, there are a whole lot of ideas floating round. Someone’s proposed the old Mt Eden Prison be used. Someone else suggested a cruise ship. Paul Bennett’s talking about pod housing. Look, my message to the government is I don’t care how you do it; just do it.”

“Put a roof over the heads of these people.”