The Ministry of Social Development has tied managers' performance agreements to reducing emergency housing numbers below government targets, prompting criticism that the arrangement creates perverse incentives.
TVNZ's Q+A programme reported that MSD managers could face consequences if emergency housing numbers exceeded targets. Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson told the programme the performance structure incentivises declining people who need emergency accommodation.
Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka said the implementation of targets sits with MSD's leadership rather than ministers. "How [the targets] are weighed up and how they are measured and how that is operationalised is something that is the purview of the chief executive of that organisation," he said.
Potaka told reporters he was not informed of the detail of MSD's performance management arrangements. "I wouldn't expect that either, given that Debbie Power is the CEO and is in charge of that and has the operational responsibility," he said. He declined to say whether he was satisfied with the arrangement, referring the matter to MSD chief executive Debbie Power.
The government has set a 75% reduction target for people in emergency housing. MSD client service support general manager Graham Allpress said the agency does not abandon people without options. Around 70% of people declined emergency housing are offered alternative support including transitional housing, rent arrears assistance, or help entering private rentals with bond and advance payments.
Robinson said homelessness was at the highest level she had witnessed in 13 years. Potaka disputed that characterisation, saying rough sleeping in Auckland had reduced considerably. "You talk to Auckland Council, those people who do the wake-up calls for people sleeping on the street in central Auckland every single morning have told me those numbers have gone down considerably over the last 12 months," he said.