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Homelessness Research Confirms Student Union’s Fears
Homelessness Research Confirms Student Union’s
Fears
The New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA) is alarmed at research released this week by Dr Kate Amore regarding homelessness but not surprised by the results.
NZUSA has known that anecdotally student homelessness in the past couple of years has become far more prevalent, but the lack of formal research has hindered any progress.
NZUSA has made a submission to the Cross-party Homelessness Inquiry and have used this as a forum to challenge the current definition of homelessness. For many students, they may not be defined as homeless as they are couch surfing or living in a hall of residence without the knowledge of hall staff.
The Statistics New Zealand definition of homelessness focusses strongly on homelessness being about having no roof over their head, or having no safe haven, but has exclusions that punish students unfairly.
“We hear about too many students couch surfing, living in garages and generally living in unsafe and unhealthy circumstances. We know there are instances where students continue to live in houses that make them sick, however, are unable to leave due to their financial situation” says NZUSA President Linsey Higgins.
“Students are living in impossible situations. They receive less in the hand from the government than they pay in rent. There is an expectation that students work to survive while studying full-time and they often have to go without to pay for expenses like power, internet, and sometimes even sanitary products."
“Our students are desperate to achieve a tertiary education and the fact that they continue to achieve given this adversity is incredible. However, this doesn’t make it acceptable. Forcing students into homelessness through poor housing supply and cripplingly low student support isn’t how you build resilience, it’s how you break people. We’ve seen services like student counselling be inundated and with research like this it’s easy to see why”.
“We need to change the idea of what homelessness means. It’s not just about the person sitting on the street with their cap on the footpath. If we fail to look past this stereotype, we fail to even scratch the surface of this issue.”
NZUSA welcomes this research and encourages further research in this area to further highlight the significant hardship that tertiary students are under.
ENDS
NZUSA - New Zealand Union of Students' Associations
We stand for opportunity, for all.
NZUSA is the New Zealand Union of Students' Associations, the national body that represents New Zealand's students' associations and the interests of New Zealand's 400,000 students at universities, polytechnics and in trades training.
We conduct original research, advocate to Government and through the media, and support New Zealand's students' associations to be more effective on behalf of their members. We advocate alongside Te Mana Akonga – The National Māori Students' Association, and Tertiary Women New Zealand – The NZUSA Women's Caucus.
Since 1929, we've believed in a society rich in opportunity, where anyone from anywhere can become any thing. We support accessible, affordable quality public tertiary education.
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