Immediate obligation 4: Establish effective and accessible accountability arrangements in relation to the emergency housing system. Without these features, an emergency housing system will fail to respond to the needs of those it is designed to serve. It also risks further breaching the human rights of those who are particularly vulnerable. These obligations are binding in international law. They apply alongside other requirements, such as the obligation to take deliberate, concrete, and targeted steps toward full realisation of the right to a decent home for everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand. In chapter 5, we ask if the emergency housing system in Aotearoa New Zealand is consistent with these four binding immediate obligations. Our report finds three key breaches of the right to a decent home grounded on Te Tiriti o Waitangi: 1. The emergency housing system is failing to deliver government’s immediate human rights obligations to provide emergency housing that meets minimum decency standards and other key features of the right to a decent home, and not to evict anyone into homelessness. This failure results in a breach of the right to a decent home grounded on Te Tiriti o Waitangi. 2. The Government’s decision in 2020 to exclude emergency accommodation and transitional housing from the Residential Tenancies Act is a serious and ongoing breach of its human rights obligation to provide accountability for the right to a decent home. 3. Government has failed to put in place accountability arrangements for the right to a decent home, grounded on Te Tiriti o Waitangi, in relation to the emergency housing system. The lack of accountability over the emergency housing system, in particular the emergency housing grant initiative, is a serious breach of government’s obligation in relation to the right to a decent home. In chapter 6, we outline recommendations to address these human rights breaches: 1) Address the inconsistencies between the two different initiatives (emergency accommodation and transitional housing) and create a single, holistic system of emergency housing. This system must: o meet urgent housing need at a range of levels and support requirements, without stigmatisation, and with a focus on relational rather than transactional services o be designed, developed, and delivered in full partnership with Tangata Whenua, and respond to Māori needs and Te Ao Māori responses to homelessness o actively support and build on community, hapū and iwi initiatives, as much as possible o be developed in active participation with those who have lived experience of homelessness and the emergency housing system. 2) Phase out the use of uncontracted commercial accommodation suppliers receiving the Emergency Housing Special Needs Grant to deliver emergency accommodation as soon as possible. 3) Commit to adequately protecting the rights of those in the emergency housing system, either by amending the Residential Tenancies Act or by creating an alternative mechanism that is significantly stronger than the current draft Code of Practice for Transitional Housing. 11