Homelessness in Auckland: Causes and Solutions

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Introduction
Homelessness is one of the major issues in Auckland, one of the major cities of New Zealand.
Many people in Auckland are reported to have been found sleeping on streets and garages as
a result of lack of shelter. The primary reasons for homelessness include the increase in
housing prices in a rapid manner along with the regressive approaches made by landlords in
terms of the increasing of the amount that needs to be paid as rent on a monthly basis (Isogai,
2018). The increasing cost of living on part of Auckland is also a reason behind a massive
number of people to be homeless. One of the worst impacts that are related to homelessness
is related to housing crisis that mostly includes individuals living on the streets.
Auckland homeless count numbers in: About 3000 without permanent housingAlong with
800 people currently living in Auckland without shelter, there are another 2874 people
including 1299 children in temporary and emergency accommodation, according to initial
figures released from the Ira Mata, IriTangata: Auckland's Homeless Council by Auckland
mayor Phil Goff.
The increase in the homeless number of people in Auckland has been the consequence of
unavailability of houses which could be afforded by the people. There has been groups of
people victims of mental health, alcohol issues and drugs issues who has been accustomed

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with the homeless issues. The people who has been facing family violence has also been the
victims of homelessness. These groups has been the ones who has not faced the traditional
risk which includes households with low incomes, sole parent households, and the people
with difference that is the gay, lesbians, transgender, bisexual and other such groups(Amore,
2019). The statistics of New Zealand has been presenting a scenario where the issue of
homelessness has been on an increasing trend and is expected to continue so until some
systematic and effective actions are taken into consideration by the respective partners and
stakeholders (Zhang, 2017).
The requirement to meet up this issue, could be initiated through increasing the social
housing stock, transforming the eligibility criteria for social housing and even through
enhancing the tenure of security. These actions and other more relevant ideas could be
applied in Auckland which would be researched through the assignment (Team, 2017). The
research would be based on the critical thinking capability and the various theories and

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concepts would be explored. These concepts would be applied to the stated scenario of
homelessness in Auckland and the relevant information would be provided by the end of the
research. The research would explore the homelessness of Auckland through the perspective
of critical thinking and acknowledging the issue through variety of theories and concepts of
critical thinking which would help in getting the both positive and the negative aspects of the
issue.
Theories and Concepts from Critical Thinking Framework
Critical Thinking is a combination of about four respective ingredients such as criticising,
thinking, analysing and creating. These ingredients are the core part of critical thinking which
helps in meeting the criteria of assessing the scenario or a situation through the four main
perspectives. As per Jackson (2015), the foremost ingredient of critical thinking is criticism
which could be defined as pointing out the faults or the loopholes and stating them with clear
justification. It is also featured with the opening up of the hidden facts and assumptions held
in the scenario, or the values held by the individual. Criticising is also accompanied by the
positive role which helps in enhancing the position of an argument and in the case of
homelessness of Auckland this characteristic would help in presenting the relevant data. This
feature helps in interpreting the situations, innovations and practices for the changes required.
As per Marshallet al. (2017), the second ingredient or the feature of critical thinking, that is
thinking, which is more of a mental process then a theoretical one It is a process through
which all the information within the mind gets acknowledged and a process gets executed
which helps in draining out the relevant information to the topic. In the concerned scenario
the human psychology would be assessed for the homelessness in Auckland scenario and this
would help in getting a close overview of the issue. The third ingredient is Analysis which is
again a process where the scenario gets broken down into pieces and the connection among
all the parts gets identified. The inter relation among all the parts helps in reasoning out the
positivity as well as the negativity of the scenario. The creativity ingredient states that on
acknowledging the scenario some new solution or concept gets developed which brings on
the creativity of the scenario. On assessing the entire scenario some new findings has been
realised which brings on the creativity ingredient of critical thinking.
The critical thinking theory relies on three basic theories which are theory of reasoning,
Theory of critical discussion and theory of cognitive mechanisms. Theory of Reasoning states
that there should be proper and justified reasoning to the criticism being stated as this would