Hundreds spoke up to oppose ‘Move on‘ legislation.

The government is criminalising homelessness through legislation to force rough sleepers out of public view and threatening them with fines and imprisonment if they have nowhere else to go.

What is proposed

People who are sleeping rough, begging or just ‘inhabiting’ a public place will face fines and prison terms if they fail to comply with move-on orders proposed by the Government under new legislation.

Why this is wrong

At the heart of our faith is a radical claim: every human being, regardless of their bank account or the roof over their head, bears the Imago Dei—the Image of God. This divine dignity is inherent; it cannot be stripped away by poverty, and it must not be ignored by the law.

The biblical story tells of radical belonging. It is never to "clear the streets" of those experiencing poverty, but to "share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter" (Isaiah 58:7).

Housing and support solve homelessness, not enforcement. The government have announced this punitive approach while actively making homelessness worse through cutting emergency housing and slashing support for wraparound services. This policy won't work, and will also make homelessness more difficult to address.

What the solutions are

Dozens of agencies and experts, and those experiencing homelessness know what solutions to homelessness are, namely for the government to:

• Roll back the emergency housing changes and resource immediate housing solutions.

• Fund health, addiction and outreach services that work with those who are sleeping rough

• Implement duty to assist legislation

• Build public housing at scale

Hundreds from the Common Grace community wrote submissions.

As a movement of Christians seeking the flourishing of Aotearoa, we could not remain silent while poverty was treated as a nuisance rather than a tragedy. During the submission period, hundreds of people from churches across Aotearoa had their say.

We are deeply concerned that the Government is proceeding, despite 98% of submissions opposed.

After hearing from 7,618 submitters the Select Committee recommended some changes, including that 14 to 17-year olds be excluded from the orders, and that begging must be deemed “unreasonable” before Move-On orders can be used. To determine this, “a constable must consider the time and location of the begging, the duration of the begging, and the effect of the begging on the enjoyment of public spaces by other people”.

The Committee also recommended a reduction in the fine for breaching an order, as (to quote from the report) "Submitters... questioned how a person who is in extreme poverty, experiencing homelessness, and is begging, could pay a court-issued fine of up to $2,000." The Committee therefore recommended a fine of $1,000, or up to three months imprisonment.

We strongly oppose the bill even with these changes. We remain deeply concerned that people rough sleeping will still be subject to the orders.