Rainbow people are significantly overrepresented in homeless populations, yet face barriers accessing housing support. In Aotearoa, rainbow populations are only starting to be recognised as a priority in national and regional policies to address homelessness and housing insecurity.
Local strategies that acknowledge rainbow/LGBTI+ people as a group disproportionately impacted by homelessness include the Aotearoa New Zealand Homelessness Action Plan 2020-2023, MAIHI Ka Ora (the National Māori Housing strategy) and the Auckland Plan 2050.
The Human Rights Commission’s Aratohu tika tangata ki te whai whare rawaka i Aotearoa - Framework Guidelines on the right to a decent home in Aotearoa names rainbow communities as one of the groups that are disadvantaged in relation to housing.
There are major gaps in data related to rainbow homelessness. These have started to be addressed through local research, and through inclusion of rainbow demographic markers in Census 2023.
Sources or local data and insight include Census 2023, Household Economic Survey, Counting Ourselves (survey of trans and non-binary people aged 14 to 83), Honour Project Aotearoa (survey of Takatāpui and Māori LGBTQI+ people aged 18 and over), Ira Mata, Ira Tangata: Auckland’s Homeless Count in 2018, Youth’19 (rainbow and other secondary school students), Dr Brodie Fraser’s PhD research and survey of Takatāpui and LGBTIQ+ youth, He Kāinga Oranga - Housing and Health Research Programme at the University of Otago. See Te Ngākau Kahukura’s Housing and homelessness topic page for more specifics.
Making Space Discovery Research Findings and Insights (April 2022) shares what we learned through our design research process, talking to people working in Auckland’s housing services and rainbow people with lived experience of homelessness (accessible Word version of Making Space insights).
Rainbow homelessness is now just an issue in Aotearoa, but affects rainbow people and communities in many comparable countries. International research and policy documents include:
LGBTIQ+ Homelessness: A Review of the Literature is a 2019 review of international research on the factors associated with LGBTIQ+ homelessness.
The right to housing of LGBT youth: an urgent task in the SDG agenda setting - a statement by the United Nations Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component on the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context.
Human Rights Watch Submission to the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing - summarises what is known about LGBT youth homelessness in the US and around the world, and makes policy recommendations for states.
The MAIHI Framework for Action describes a set of kaupapa Māori principles that underpin MAIHI Ka Ora, the national Māori housing strategy. For takatāpui and rainbow Māori, these principles can help illustrate some of the considerations that we need to think about to address homelessness.
Te mauri o te whānau is central to the framework. For takatāpui, one of the most enduring and harmful impacts of colonisation is disconnection from whānau. Because of social stigma and judgement, and the suppression of mātauranga related to takatāpui lives, some whānau still find it hard to accept and include takatāpui family members. This can have a direct impact on homelessness, by making home environments unsafe, and reducing access to intergenerational whānau housing support. The work of addressing takatāpui homelessness includes restoring whānau relationships, in turn restoring te mauri o te whānau.
For housing service providers, the MAIHI principles suggest ways to work with takatāpui. These are not the only ways of interpreting these principles, but provide some starting points for thinking about working with takatāpui:
Mauri - enabling the life force, an essence for revival and fulfilment to be sustained in wellbeing. Services should be designed to sustain and nurture people’s wellbeing. This could include offering support beyond housing, to connect with takatāpui and rainbow community groups, health services to access gender-affirming care, or social events like Pride.
Tikanga - doing things right, being in the right place at the right time. Services should have clear policies and ways of doing things that respect and affirm takatāpui people, and create safe environments. This could include thinking through tikanga related to gender, and working out how this impacts transgender and intersex people coming through services.
Whakamana - empowering whānau intergenerationally. Staff should be educated and supported to be able to affirm and whakamana service users. For example, this might include using names, pronouns and gendered language in respectful ways. It might include supporting individuals to self-advocate across the other services they are accessing, like welfare and health services.
Manaakitanga -key mechanisms of engaging and building relationships. Services and housing supports should be set up to effectively welcome takatāpui, and enable staff to manaaki them. This means making sure physical environments and services are inclusive, and staff have the training and support they need.
Whanaungatanga - delivery services for Māori through a whakapapa lens. Service providers should build working relationships with rainbow organisations, service providers and community leaders, as well as with whānau, hapū and iwi. Services should be designed to weave together and wrap a korowai of support around people who need it, rather than letting people fall through the gaps.
Tino Rangatiratanga - self-determination of self-sufficiency through creating your own sense of belonging. People should have choices about the services they use, and self-determine what will be the most suitable. This includes being able to use services that are safe and suitable for their gender.
Read more: our briefing paper (Oct 2022) was written for decision makers to share what we know about rainbow homelessness, and the structural changes that are needed to address it.
Our work with Making Space has focused on tackling just one part of the wider issue of rainbow homelessness: improving access to housing services. Most of the resources on this website were developed to help housing providers improve how they work with rainbow clients.
We want to end rainbow homelessness in Aotearoa, and we’re very aware of the system changes that are needed. Some key issues are:
The ongoing impacts of colonisation, and particularly the harms to takatāpui and whānau relationships as rainbow identities were suppressed, criminalised and pathologised.
The lack of secure and affordable housing and wider cost of living challenges.
The need for more specialist rainbow support workers who can help people navigate housing services and address the wider challenges they may be facing as a rainbow person.
The lack of mandate or requirement for housing providers to priorise rainbow skills, due to rainbow communies not being named in strategies, policies or contract requirements.
Social and systemic exclusion of rainbow people (e.g. in housing, employment, education, and health), and limited infrastructure or expertise within government to address this.
Limited data and information on rainbow homelessness because rainbow demographic questions are not routinely included in provider-level data and national surveys, and have only recently begun to appear in official statistics.
Lack of a cohesive, resourced national plan for addressing rainbow homelessness.
Everyone has a role to play in making Aotearoa a place where rainbow people can live in places where they are safe, in communities where they belong.