Just one fifth of families leaving immediate access transitional housing going onto long-term home

Only one in five families who left immediate access transitional housing since the scheme was launched went into a long-term home, new data reveals.

Government figures show 79% went to “other destinations”, which includes another social provider or service (17%). More than a third of the families who left the scheme “to a destination other than long-term housing or living with family” did not specify why they were leaving.

While it is not clear from the data where many of the families in the “other destinations” category ended up, Labour is concerned it could mean more people are sleeping rough.

It comes as the Government faces fresh attention over its urgent housing policies after it was revealed the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) has written the coalition’s goal of reducing emergency housing use into staff performance targets.

Transitional housing is a temporary housing option for people who have nowhere else to go. It is different to emergency housing. Hundreds of families have accessed transitional housing through the “immediate access” pathway, a limited service that bypasses many of the normal transitional housing conditions. Many of these families were sleeping rough.

The new data was released by Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka’s office in response to written questions from Labour. It shows 325 households have exited immediate access transitional housing since the scheme began in September, and 19% went to long-term housing, 2% went to live with family and 79% exited to “other destinations.”

Of those that did not go to long-term housing or to live with family, 38% voluntarily left the service, 17% were transferred to a different provider, 5% were removed from the service, 3% were “a health-related exit” and 37% left “for a different unspecified reason”.

Potaka, who oversees emergency and urgent housing options, did not reply to requests for comment about the data.

Housing Minister Chris Bishop said the figures reflected the “difficult circumstances” people requiring the service were often in.

“People make a variety of choices. The programme is relatively new, and we are working with the City Mission around that,” he said.

“These are not easy circumstances that often people find themselves in.”

Immediate access transitional housing is part of Bishop’s and Potaka’s immediate action plan to get people sleeping rough into social houses, released in September last year. This announcement included funding for an additional 300 social homes under the coalition’s Housing First programme.

In June, Potaka and Bishop announced an additional $14.5m for rough sleepers including expanding outreach and support services to six new locations.

The data released from Potaka’s office shows an increase in families who were sleeping rough that had contacted Housing First for help. In September 2025, 286 households that were sleeping rough had engaged with the service, compared to 317 in April this year.

Most of the families who contacted Housing First in April were in Auckland (142).

A more contentious part of the Government’s housing scheme includes the August 2024 tightening of the emergency housing gateway, which the Government says means thousands of children are no longer living in “cold, dank” motels.

But the Opposition says the coalition’s urgent housing policies are pushing people back on the street. Labour’s housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said the Government’s focus was on people leaving emergency housing rather than where they were going.

“Every initiative they talk about, they never give the full picture. We were asking legitimate questions in Question Time (at Parliament) ... all they spoke about is people who leave transitional housing.”

McAnulty said policies like a tighter emergency housing gateway and MSD staff performance targets being linked to Government targets were leading to “people in real need being declined.”

Potaka said the linking of Government targets to MSD staff performance markers was an “operational” matter for the agency’s chief executive.

Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston, who is responsible for MSD, agreed MSD should be “operationalising” the Government’s welfare and emergency housing targets. Labour leader Chris Hipkins said if he was Prime Minister, he would scrap the performance measure.

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.