Right to Housing ICESCR Art: 11 LOIPR Para: 21 SDG: 11 Availability and affordability - Homelessness/severe housing deprivation 88. The size of New Zealand’s homeless or severely deprived housing population grew both numerically and proportionately during the twelve-year period between the 2001 and 2013 Census reports.106 The February 2018 Stocktake of New Zealand’s Housing (“the 2018 Stocktake report”), commissioned by the Government, reported an increase in proportionality from one in 120 people in 2006 to one in 100 in 2013.107 2013 Census data reported that over 41,000 New Zealanders suffered severe housing deprivation, a rise of 15% from 2006 Census data.108 Māori and Pasifika are disproportionately represented amongst this population group.109 In New Zealand, the official definition of “homelessness” is “living situations where people with no other options to acquire safe and secure housing, are without shelter, in temporary accommodation, sharing accommodation with a household or living in uninhabitable housing”.110 The term “severe housing deprivation” used in New Zealand census data is based on this definition.111 89. The 2018 Stocktake report also reported that there is likely to be a significant amount of “hidden” homelessness in New Zealand, although the exact scale of the problem is unknown. This is because data is not systematically collected on persons who don’t or can’t access government housing assistance, or are turned away from community agencies already at full capacity. However, what data there is paints an alarming picture. 2017 data from community emergency housing providers indicated for every 10 homeless people who approached them, eight or nine were turned away.112 90. To date, measures by Government to address severe housing deprivation have largely been ad hoc or reactive. Between March and June 2017 the Government increased its funding of emergency housing to meet high demand. This included funding temporary accommodation in motel units due to a lack of available emergency housing.113 In December 2017 the new Minister for Housing announced a commitment to develop a New Zealand Strategy to End Homelessness.114 The 2018 Stocktake report has also reported that the Government is stepping up efforts to secure new transitional housing places and is investigating a new system for recording and monitoring the numbers of homeless. 29