I spoke with Victoria Crockford from the Coalition to End Women’s Homelessness this evening. She detailed the findings of the Coalition’s latest report, ‘Children and Young People Experiencing Homelessness,’ published today, including:
there are 33,000 children and young people experiencing homelessness and they face significantly higher rates of harm across multiple areas of their lives;
Children and young people experiencing homelessness are nearly three times more likely to have experienced abuse;
Young people experiencing homelessness are more likely to disengage from education and interact with the justice system;
Children under five experiencing homelessness are two times more likely to never have been enrolled with a Primary Health Organisation;
Children under five experiencing homelessness are 1.6 times more likely to never have been enrolled in early childhood education;
Children under five experiencing homelessness are significantly more likely to experience preventable hospitalisations, including respiratory illness and vaccine preventable disease; and,
Māori and Pacific children continue to be disproportionately impacted by homelessness and most of the tamariki are located in Auckland, Northland, or Gisborne.
“What this research tells us about is who we are as a society, and I don’t think you can even read the headline and believe that enough is being done.” Victoria Crockford, co-lead of Coalition to End Women’s Homelessness.
Thank you Kaimataara, Andrew Riddell, Max Du Frene, Alex Clarkson, and many others for tuning into my live video with VictoriaC! Join me for my next live video in the app.
