Suchergebnisse

PURPOSE: The aim of this paper is to explore government service usage across the domains of health, justice, and social development and tax for a cohort of formerly homeless people in Aotearoa New Zealand, focusing specifically on the experiences of women. The Integrated Data Infrastructure is used, which links our de-identified cohort data with administrative data from various Aotearoa New Zealand Government departments. RESULTS: Of the cohort of 390, the majority (53.8%) were women. These women were more likely to be younger (57.1% were aged 25–44), indigenous Māori (78.6%), and have children (81.4%). These women had lower incomes, and higher rates of welfare benefit receipt, when compared to men in the cohort and a control group of women from the wider population. CONCLUSIONS: The cohort were primarily female, younger, Māori, and parents. They earned much less than their non-homeless counterparts, and relied heavily on government support. The neoliberalisation of the welfare state, high rates of women's poverty, and the gendered nature of parenthood means that women's homelessness is distinct from men's homelessness.

BACKGROUND: The Ending Homelessness in New Zealand: Housing First research programme is evaluating outcomes for people housed in a Housing First programme run by The People's Project in Hamilton, New Zealand. This baseline results paper uses administrative data to look at the scope and duration of their interactions with government services. METHODS: We linked our de-identified cohort to the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI). This database contains administrative data on most services provided by the New Zealand Government to citizens. Linkage rates in all datasets were above 90%. This paper reports on the use of government services by the cohort before being housed. We focus on the domains of health, justice and income support. RESULTS: The cohort of 390 people had over 200,000 recorded interactions across a range of services in their lifetime. The most common services were health, justice and welfare. The homeless cohort had used the services at rates far in excess of the general population. Unfortunately these did not prevent them from becoming homeless. CONCLUSION: These preliminary findings show the homeless population have important service delivery needs and a very high level of interaction with government services. This highlights the importance of analysing the contributing factors towards homelessness; for evaluation of interventions such as Housing First, and for understanding the need for integrated systems of government policy and practice to prevent homelessness. This paper also provides the baseline for post-Housing First evaluations.