Government cannot escape its human rights obligations by asserting that, despite the failures of the emergency housing system, the alternative would be worse because people would have nowhere to stay, as in their response to the report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing: We know that motels aren’t an ideal situation, however, they are preferable to people living in cars, staying in overcrowded housing, sleeping in parks or on the street.55 In a country like Aotearoa New Zealand, neither homelessness nor a failing emergency housing system is acceptable, and both fall short of human rights standards. The obligation on government is to provide decent emergency housing that meets fundamental human rights requirements, not to provide something because it is better than nothing. This obligation has not been met and is a breach of Aotearoa New Zealand’s binding international human rights obligations. Immediate obligation 3: Uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi alongside other human rights obligations The human right to a decent home in Aotearoa must be read together with Te Tiriti o Waitangi. This human right cannot be fully realised unless Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations are also met. Tangata Whenua are disproportionately represented in homelessness statistics and transitional housing. 60 percent of emergency housing recipients are Māori. These inequities are reflected across the rest of the housing system and are compounded by overlapping forms of disadvantage, such as poverty and discrimination. As part of the Wai 2750 Housing Policy and Services Kaupapa Inquiry, the Waitangi Tribunal 50 Human Rights Commission is now conducting an inquiry on housing policy and services surrounding Māori homelessness. Claimants and witnesses have raised significant issues about the failures of the current emergency housing system to respond to the needs of Māori, and the imperative of Māori-led approaches to emergency housing. Claimants have highlighted the differences between the government’s definition of homelessness and the ways homelessness can be understood in a Te Ao Māori context. It is impossible to deliver services that meet Māori needs when those services are designed to address an issue defined in a way fundamentally inconsistent with Te Ao Māori. In the context of Wai 2750, the Crown has acknowledged that:56 Where disparities exist at a population or group level, the Crown should aim to target housing services in an attempt to remove those disparities and that disparities in housing outcomes that exist between Māori and non-Māori are both inequitable and unacceptable. This requirement to target services is an obligation under Te Tiriti o Waitangi and human rights law. The right to a decent home requires effective measures designed to address unfair disadvantage experienced by some individuals and communities. If the Government does not take effective steps to tackle discrimination and inequality in housing, it can be held to account and required to take remedial measures. Additionally, the Crown’s commitment to Māori under Te Tiriti o Waitangi goes much further than a promise of equitable treatment. It requires the putting right of wrongs committed and damage inflicted and honouring the pre-existing Tiriti and Indigenous rights of Tangata Whenua.