Ryan Bridge: A new political battlefront's opening up on homelessness

Nobody wants to see streets dotted with tents like San Francisco or downtown LA.

This much-hyped government report to Tama Potaka gives a few insights, but doesn't really nail the problem.

There are more people living rough, but we can't say for sure how many more, and even if we could, we can't say how statistically significant the change might be.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Did the closure of the emergency motels drive the increase in rough sleeping?

Let's be honest with each other about something.

That increase in rough sleeping that the cities are anecdotally reporting to that homelessness report will be caused by the shutting down of those emergency motels. I know the Government's trying to avoid having to admit that, but that is the big thing that's changed since the election.

They've shut down the motels and some of the people who were in those motels, or who might have gone to those motels, have ended up on the streets. And I don't think that that's unexpected.

Chris Lynch: Government and Labour clash over worsening homelessness claims

The Government is under fire for “worsening New Zealand’s homelessness crisis” with Labour accusing Ministers of ignoring warnings from frontline housing providers and relying on flawed data to justify their policies.

Labour’s housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said the Government had been repeatedly told by those on the ground that more people were sleeping rough because of changes to emergency housing policy.