Families Moving North to Escape Poverty Often Worse Off – Leading Social Service Provider

Many parents moving from Auckland to Northland to escape poverty, find affordable homes and make a better life for their families are finding they are worse off and are facing serious, unaddressed mental health issues, says leading social service provider Family Works Northern.

“We see a lot of parents who are trying their very best to make good choices for themselves and their children,” says Margie Matthews, Family Works Northern’s Service Manager for Whangarei.

“But when they move north they often can’t find jobs or affordable homes. If they are on benefits they often feel stigmatized and judged. Even if they are earning, their minimum wages are not nearly enough to cover their families’ costs.”

“Trying to find the money for school uniforms, bus fares, doctors’ visits, prescriptions, to fix the car so they can go to work or pay their power bill to heat the house will throw out their budget,” she says.

“Some parents are in the invidious position of having to decide: ‘Do I pay the power bill or do I buy food?’,” says Matthews, whose 10 staff provide services including social work, counselling, and a parenting programme in prison.

Being under constant financial pressure is making parents, and their children, vulnerable to serious mental health issues.

“But mental health and other services are so stretched they are not getting the help they need. We are doing our very best but the clients we see often need more specifically targeted services. We are having to advocate to get them into these services but there are road blocks all the way.”

As schools’ rolls increase, they are also becoming more stretched and lack the resources to help children needing extra care, including those adjusting to their new environment and those struggling to understand the changing behaviour of parents who have lost their self-esteem and become anxious and depressed. Northland’s population increase, shortage of houses and increasing property speculation have pushed some rents up by about a fifth in the past year and made it almost impossible for many people, including professional workers, to find affordable homes, says Matthews.

“So families from Auckland will move in with extended family or whanau where they often live in garages or basic cabins, or everyone is squashed together in small, over-crowded houses which creates health issues.”

“It is common for more than 20 families to turn up to view a rental property and get turned away,” says Matthews.

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