What About the Kids? Identifying Children in the Housing Support System in Aotearoa, New Zealand

Abstract

In Aotearoa New Zealand (henceforth referred to as Aotearoa) a range of housing supports are aimed at improving homeownership rates and making both private rental and public housing more available. Despite these “supports”, a large number of children, adolescents and young people are experiencing housing insecurity or severe housing deprivation. Housing intersects with health, education, state care and welfare to influence a range of outcomes for children, therefore this paper addresses the critical issue of access to housing supports for children and adolescents. Through Official Information Act requests and a review of existing housing sector data, we found 323,257 children within the housing support system in Aotearoa New Zealand, with Māori (Indigenous People of Aotearoa) children disproportionately represented. We describe how children are largely unaccounted for in housing support system data, and this invisibility therefore challenges the understanding of the extent, inequities, and impact of the housing sector on children. We argue the urgent need for transformative policies centred on children, embedded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi), to ensure all children have access to stable, healthy, and secure housing for a brighter future.