Critical Analysis of Homelessness in Auckland, New Zealand

This report provides a critical analysis of homelessness in Auckland, New Zealand. It begins by introducing the issue, highlighting the rising housing prices, regressive landlord approaches, and increasing cost of living as primary factors. The report presents statistics on the number of homeless individuals and identifies vulnerable groups. It then explores critical thinking frameworks, including criticism, thinking, analysis, and creativity, along with relevant theories like reasoning, critical discussion, and cognitive mechanisms. A literature review examines the concept of homelessness globally and specifically in Auckland, discussing the government's response and the impact of factors like methamphetamine use. The report concludes by applying critical thinking to the Auckland homelessness scenario, analyzing the causes, impacts, and potential solutions to address the crisis effectively. The report underscores the need for a multi-faceted approach and the importance of considering various perspectives for creating effective 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

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help in justifying and proving the statement made. The critical discussion theory is the theory
which provides with the criteria for stating the discussion on the criticising factor of the
statement. This supports the criticising statement and makes it authentic. The cognitive theory
is the theory which helps a support or a backbone to the criticism and thus, acts as a
supporting hand. These three theories helps in framing up the theory of critical thinking
which helps in presenting a scenario through stating its all the perspectives that is the
positive, negative, neutral, and other perspectives. On acknowledging all the possible
situations of a scenario, the most relevant and the most dominating aspect gets assessed
which is based on the thinking process of the individual and thus, this brings in the creativity
feature of critical thinking.
The application of critical thinking in the Auckland case of homelessness would help in
acknowledging all the possible scenarios which has led to the present condition and the
reason for this scenario would also be assessed through various perspectives. This would help
in creating a perspective which would be based on the facts and information’s gained through
the assessment and thus it would provide with some fruitful and new aspect of the situation.
Literature review
Concept of Homelessness over different countries
As per Hodgettset al. (2018), homelessness could be defined as a scenario where people are
living in houses which are below the minimum standard and also lacks the secured tenure.
The people who could be claimed to be homeless includes those who has been living on
streets, in cars, in friend’s place, moving among temporary shelters, etc. The people living on
the streets is the primary homelessness one and the ones living in temporary homes or shelter
is known as secondary homelessness. According to Zhang and Chawner (2018), it has been
stated that about 100 million people has been homeless all over the world, in the year 2015. It
was also estimated that about 1 billion people has been observed to live as squatters, refugees
or under temporary shelters around the globe. There exist about 50-80% men who are
homeless in the western countries as single males. It has been also stated that the homeless
people are the ones who are accompanied by serious health issues along with the mental
issues and the change in climate impacts these issues intensely. In United Kingdom, The
homelessness has been defined as home is not just a physical space but it accompanies the

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roots, originality, security, sense of belonging exists in it. In Auckland, the homelessness is
defined as the living space where people can live and feel secured.
Auckland and Homelessness
As per National Government of Auckland, the government has been increasing the stock of
emergency housing which is also known as transitional housing but the efforts where not
channelized towards the affordable rentals or home ownership. This would have helped in
solving the issue of housing woes. As per Beaton and Greenaway (2017), the people of
Auckland has been spending more than twelve weeks at the emergency houses because there
are no houses available at the other end, thus adding on to the issue of homelessness. The
idea of building up the higher density housings has been taken in Auckland by the
government but the process or the procedure that is being followed by the housing n New
Zealand has been adding on to the issue of homelessness. The idea of demolishing the houses
even before the other houses has been framed has been the reason for the increasing issue of
lack of homes.
According to Degenhardtet al. (2017), Methamphetamine could be defined as potent central
nervous system which gets utilised as a recreational drug or a second line treatment for
attention deficit. The housing department of New Zealand d has been observing the fact that
methamphetamine has been keeping number of people out of state homes. Number of
Housing of New Zealand properties has been vacant because of the contamination with the
drug. And its too expensive to clean meth from house its cost about $10000-15000 for 4

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bedroom house and its quit hard to afford that much amount for normal person.
The zero tolerance approach to drugs and abuse in homes has also contributed to the issue of
homelessness in Auckland along with the other issues mentioned above. The cost of living
on part of Auckland is increasing in a rapid manner due to its prominence is a multicultural
hub of New Zealand thereby attracting a huge number of businesses. As per Chomchai and
Chomchai (2015), various kinds of community and support services like AWHINA, Ministry
of social development are engaging in activities pertaining to the welfare of those people who
have been rendered homeless. They also started employment programs, training
programs,counselling etc .As a result, alternative kinds of housing are being provided to such
people as far as the reduction of homelessness in Auckland is concerned. Loss of jobs is also
one of the major reasons of homelessness in Auckland. According to Chomchai and
Chomchai (2015), it has been found that homeless crisis in Auckland has always increased to
worse level with each passing year. There have always been indications regarding the high
hidden levels of homeless with huge numbers of individuals. The government has however
been targeting to reduce homelessness thus aiming to provide more state houses as well as
emergency housing.
Critical Thinking Framework on Homelessness in Auckland
On acknowledging and exploring the Auckland scenario of homelessness and the reasons for
its existence has provided with a vast number of facts which could be assessed through

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application of critical thinking. The reason for homelessness has been the
methamphetamine(meth) because its very dangerous drug and mostly meth spread through
smoking cigarettes or through some other drug smokes in home. These are some of the harms
which happen through meth if ignored like increased heart rate and blood pressure, blood
vessels in the brain that can cause strokes or an irregular heartbeat ,liver, kidney and lung
damage.
along with this there are also some wrong decisions taken by Housing of New Zealand
department. Like demolishing the houses together and then taking up the construction.
Instead of making some new temporary first.

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This has been adding on to the issue rather than solving it. An approach of demolishing and
side by side constructing the houses should have been taken which should have been
followed by the second demolish and then construction and it should have continued. This
way the city would have not faced the intense issue of homelessness, in fact the issue would
have received a solution.
The issue of methamphetamine has been followed in a white and black approach which has
been revealed through the intolerance towards drugs and home violence. This has led to the
homelessness and it reveals an intense and crucial step towards the ones addicted to drugs.
The cutting off strategy from the drug addicts should have been accompanied by providing a
solutions like putting worse case people to rehabilitation centres and various kind of
community and private support services started employment programs, training programs ,
counselling etc. To them so that they could come out of the habit and lead a normal life. The
intolerance of drugs and domestic violence should have been handled with more sensitive and
planned strategy which would have helped in solving both the issues that is the issue of
methamphetamine and the issue of homelessness. The government should have taken up
some effective and more sensitive and realistic steps towards the issue which would have
reduced the major problem.

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Conclusion and Recommendation
The exploration of housing of New Zealand department for the issue of homelessness has
been done and conducted through regressive and in detail research. The research has
considered almost all the perspectives of homelessness sand the vital reasons and causes of
the scenario has also been acknowledged in detail. The critical thinking theory has been
applied to the scenario and it has revealed some specific as well as relevant solutions.
On collecting the information and reviewing it critically, some recommendations has been
built up which could be taken up by Auckland, in order to deal with its issue of homelessness
 The foremost recommendation is that the city needs to take up a one on one strategy
of constructing and demolishing the existing houses, which would reduce the
homelessness percentage.
 The second recommendation is that the city needs to restrict the consumption of drugs
and other harmful ingredients which could reduce the cause of homelessness.
References
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Chomchai, C., &Chomchai, S. (2015). Global patterns of methamphetamine use. Current
opinion in psychiatry, 28(4), 269-274.
Degenhardt, L., Sara, G., McKetin, R., Roxburgh, A., Dobbins, T., Farrell, M., ... & Hall, W.
D. (2017). Crystalline methamphetamine use and methamphetamine‐related harms in
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Hodgetts, D., Stolte, O., Groot, S., & Drew, N. (2018). Homelessness, mimesis, and the
flânerie. International Perspectives in Psychology: Research, Practice, Consultation, 7(2),
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