The New Zealand Coalition to End Homelessness (NZCEH) conference He whānau whare kore, he kai mate hau/Addressing Whānau
Homelessness will be held on 21 February 2018 at Auckland University of Technology City Campus - Sir Paul Reeves (WG)
Building
NZCEH has always believed that a home is a human right, that whānau/families need a place to call home and so we have
tried to come up with a conference that will stimulate, highlight and hopefully start to help us resolve the current
unsustainable situation forsome of our whānau /families and individuals. Yes,the government has changed, and the future
talk is about addressing homelessness here in Aotearoa New Zealand but without the stories, the korero amongst those who
work in the homelessness field, we will never come up with a strategy to solve the issue of whānau /family homelessness.
The theme for this conference is about whanau/families’ homelessness. It is not only about the traditional whanau
/families, it is about LGBT whānau/families and it is about the individuals who may live rough on the streets and become
connected to each other because of safety, resources and whanaungatanga and kinship. These individuals have become the
nomadic homeless of Aotearoa New Zealand and they have often become so close that the only true description of their
relationship would be whānau /family.
We have a selection of topics that will be discussed which includes the lived experiences of whānau homelessness, the
forgotten whānau/families experiencing homelessness, the persistent challenges to addressing homelessness especially
whānau /family homelessness, and very importantly the strategic ideas for addressing whānau /family homelessness here in
Aotearoa New Zealand.
The diverse range of speakers that we have invited range from politicians to those who engage daily with whānau/families
that are homeless. To put it into colloquial terms the speakers that we have invited work directly ‘on the coal face’ of
homelessness with the most vulnerable members of our society and that is those who have no home or whare to call their
own. All the speakers have also been invited because they all have something in common and that is the kaupapa of He
whānau whare kore, he kai mate hau/Addressing Whānau Homelessness.