An insight into the experience of rough sleeping in central Auckland

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case study

STUDIO

Auckland Council, Auckland City Mission and Lifewise

case study

New Zealand’s homelessness crisis affects many people, lives, and communities in different ways. Previously, there was little prior research that gave an understanding of the lives and experiences of those who sleep rough on the streets of central Auckland. Auckland Council, Auckland City Mission, and Lifewise came together with a vision for a research project that would increase understanding of those experiences and create a tool to inspire innovative solutions across the support sector.

A visualisation from the final report showing the housing conundrum.

We spoke to people with lived experience of rough sleeping, people who support those who sleep rough, and people who are affected by those who sleep rough (e.g. businesses and the general public).

On World Homelessness Day 2014, we asked people who had slept rough to describe their experience in one word. This surfaced a range of emotions from feeling outcast to feeling free, from feeling invisible to feeling confident, and so on. We learned that there were many contributors to rough sleeping and a vast range of individual experiences.

One of the insights and tools that proved impactful was the representation of the streets as a house. Firstly, this created a connection point, a place for empathy, for those who had no experience of sleeping rough. Secondly, it highlighted that, without a house, people who slept rough carried out everyday functions in public. This was a primary source of tensions that sometimes arose: the overlap of public and private domains.

One story of impact that has always stuck with us occurred a year or so after the project finished. One of the project team members was talking with someone who sleeps rough. Partway through the conversation, they pulled out the insights report and said that they carry it with them as it explains their experiences better than they could communicate. The only people who can judge whether an insight or expression of an experience is correct are those with lived experience. This was humbling.

The streets as a house. This empathy tool helped show that, without a house, every day functions still need to be carried out.

Fast forward to 2024, and we still hear people referencing this research. Insights and tools that remain useful and compelling years into the future are indicators of impact.