2018 Severe Housing Deprivation Estimate

Around 2 per cent of Aotearoa New Zealand’s population are estimated to be severely housing deprived, according to The Severe Housing Deprivation in Aotearoa New Zealand 2018 report.

About the report

Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga – Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) contracted the University of Otago to produce an estimate of New Zealand’s homeless population, using 2018 Census data. The result is the Severe Housing Deprivation in Aotearoa 2018 report.

The report serves as a reminder that people experiencing homelessness aren’t just those who are visible on the streets, but also include people living in motels or cars, or having to couch surf with friends or family, or stay in a night shelter or refuge.

Download the Severe Housing Deprivation Estimate: 2018 Report

The numbers

The report found that approximately 102,000 people in New Zealand were severely housing deprived, according to Census data collected on 6 March 2018.

Previous estimates put that number at around 40,000. The rise is due to the addition of around 60,000 people in a new category of people living in uninhabitable housing. For housing to be considered uninhabitable, it has to lack at least one of six basic amenities: tap water that’s safe to drink; electricity; cooking facilities; a kitchen sink; a bath or shower; a toilet.

The 102,000 total includes:

3,624 people who were considered to be living without shelter, e.g on the streets, in improvised dwellings (such as cars), and in mobile dwellings
7,929 people who were living in temporary accommodation, such as night shelters, women’s refuges, transitional housing, camping grounds, boarding houses, hotels, motels, vessels and marae.
30,171 people who were sharing accommodation, staying with others in severely crowded dwellings
60,399 people who were living in uninhabitable housing.

Census data

There were problems with data collection for the 2018 Census, with lower than expected participation rates. This had a significant effect on the quality of information collected, including a likely undercount of the number of Māori and Pacific people experiencing severe housing deprivation. This underlines the importance of developing other sources of data to monitor severe housing deprivation.

A point in time measurement

The estimates in the report are a point in time measurement, taken from the 2018 Census.

The impact of COVID-19 and the government response to homelessness since the Census will present a different picture of the Aotearoa New Zealand homeless population than described in the estimate.

Aotearoa Homelessness Action Plan

Since the Census 2018, we have created and started implementing the Aotearoa Homelessness Action Plan (HAP). This was developed in partnership with the homeless sector and places an emphasis on taking kaupapa Māori approaches that aim to assist hapū, iwi and Māori organisations to address homelessness in a way that best meets the needs and aspirations of their communities.

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