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Read up on research and policy
Research tells us that rainbow people are significantly overrepresented in homeless populations, yet face barriers accessing mainstream housing services with staff lacking confidence or knowledge around rainbow identities and experiences, and policies and environments that are not designed to be inclusive. In Aotearoa, rainbow populations are only starting to be recognised as a priority in national and regional policies to address homelessness and housing insecurity.
Our knowledge brief, An Introduction to Rainbow Homelessness, offers a simplified snapshot into what we know about rainbow homelessness and, in particular, the role of housing and homelessness service organisations.
On this page, we’ve shared some key local research and policy documents on rainbow homelessness to help you understand the issues and needs for rainbow communities.
Research
LGBTIQ+ Homelessness: A Review of the Literature is a 2019 review of international research on the factors associated with LGBTIQ+ homelessness.
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).
Local data and research includes:
Counting Ourselves (which surveyed trans and non-binary people aged 14 to 83). Almost one in five (19%) had experienced homelessness at some time in their lives, and this was higher for non-European participants (25%).
Honour Project Aotearoa (which surveyed Takatāpui and Māori LGBTQI+ people aged 18 and over). Almost 20% of respondents described themselves as currently homeless. Homelessness was correlated to insufficient income and discrimination.
Ira Mata, Ira Tangata: Auckland’s Homeless Count in 2018 found people living without shelter are twice as likely to be rainbow-identified compared with the general population.
Youth’19 found that rainbow secondary school students were significantly more likely to report housing deprivation (38%) than their non-rainbow peers (28%).
Looking more closely at results for groups of rainbow students, Youth’19 found that takatāpui and rainbow Māori were significantly more likely to be sleeping in temporary or unsuitable places due to unaffordable housing or lack of space (26%) than non-rainbow rangatahi Māori (17%), Pākehā rainbow young people (10%), or non-rainbow Pākehā young people (4%). Pacific rainbow young people had higher rates of housing deprivation than Pākehā rainbow young people, and disabled rainbow young people had higher rates than their non-disabled peers.
The Household Economic Survey (2020) did not look at homelessness, but found LGBT+ people were more likely to rent than the non-LGBT+ population, and more likely to live in dwellings that had problems with damp, mould, or warmth.
Dr Brodie Fraser’s PhD research looked into Takatāpui/LGBTIQ+ experiences of homelessness in Aotearoa:
In another survey of 334 Takatāpui and LGBTIQ+ youth led by Dr Brodie Fraser, 31% had experienced at least one form of homelessness in their lives.
Policy documents
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.
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.