The barriers to addressing changes are: • kāwana reluctance to share power as indicated by the extended opposition to the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples • contested histories and lack of a wide public understanding of our colonial history • lack of trust of Māori capabilities and accountabilities. Report recommendations 1. Advice is needed from Māori housing leaders, partners, and communities. 2. The relationship between the Crown and Tangata Whenua, which is based on mutual responsibility and accountability, should be a priority to achieve the right to a decent home for Māori. 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. Report recommendations 1. Address the inconsistencies between the two different initiatives (emergency housing and transitional housing) and create a single, holistic system of emergency housing. This system must: • meet urgent housing need at a range of levels and support requirements without stigmatisation and with a focus on relational rather than transactional services 3. A new independent structure for housing for Māori that would respond to te Tiriti. • Homelessness and Human Rights: A Review of the Emergency Housing System in Aotearoa New Zealand48 be designed, developed, and delivered in full partnership with Tangata Whenua and respond to Māori needs and ao Māori responses to homelessness • actively support and build on community, hapū and iwi initiatives as much as possible • be developed in active participation with those who have lived experience of homelessness and the emergency housing system. Report findings 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. The Government’s decision in 2020 to exclude emergency housing 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. 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. Appendices 39