These facts do not, on their own, guarantee a life on the street. The truth is, most of us are only a few bits of bad luck away from this story being ours. An injury that ends our ability to work, a debt that means we can’t pay a mortgage. A relationship breakdown. A mental health crisis – more than 20% of New Zealanders experience some form of mental illness in any given year, and nearly half will in our lifetimes. Substance use that turns harmful, as it will for more than a quarter of us.
The people we’re fortunate to be in relationship with at the Mission include people with PhDs, elite athletes, talented musicians, mums and dads; people for whom life went quite severely sideways. None of us is as far from losing everything as we’d like to think.
And you know what? That is a scary thought. It’s confronting to see someone suffering, and feel there’s nothing you can do. It’s hard on the heart to know we live in such a beautiful, abundant country while people go without the basics. Some find it easier to look away than to look someone in the eye and think, “I could be you.”
Since the Summary Offences (Move-on Orders) Amendment Bill was announced in February, the Mission’s outreach team has seen more people sleeping rough in the suburbs, dispersing from the CBD in anticipation of the move-on orders coming into force. Most people sleeping rough don’t know the finer details of what is or isn’t law yet, what they can and can’t do under the new rules. They just don’t want to get into trouble.
Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson. Photo / Dean Purcell
And so, many of you will have noticed new faces in your neighbourhoods. These are people with families, friends, opinions, interests, strengths and flaws. The irony of this bill is that it has made it harder than ever to ignore homelessness. We have asked since the orders were proposed: “Where will people go?” Now we’re finding out, the question becomes: “How will we welcome them?”
We cannot ignore these new members of our communities, because your “elsewhere” will always be someone else’s “somewhere”. Until we live in a country where there is a home for everyone, and the means for people to make a life from that home, this is our reality. So instead of ignoring these new faces, perhaps we could try accepting them, and see what happens. Take the time to get to know your new neighbours, to meet their gaze, to say, “Good morning”.
What you learn may surprise you. Your life might even become richer for knowing someone who leads a life that, right now, looks quite different from yours. Someone you might never have met, had they not been moved on from our city centre.
Helen Robinson is chief executive of the Auckland City Mission.
Catch up on the debates that dominated the week by signing up to our Opinion newsletter – a weekly round-up of our best commentary.