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. 

Because we had census data, we know it got way worse under Labour - up 37% from 2018-2023. 

The councils are reporting (what economists might call) high frequency data that things are getting worse - the rising number of phone calls and reports of concern they're getting from the public. 

The real question —which is the basis of what the Opposition's upset about— is if the Government's crackdown on emergency housing caused a wave of homeless refugees camped out on the streets?

Here's some interesting numbers: the number of households living in emergency motels is down by 75%, around 85% of them went to some form of housing. 

So that's great. They managed to smash through the list and get most people housed. 

And here's where Labour's claim gets a bit murky: declines for emergency applications are on the increase, but mostly rejected because either the client wasn't eligible or could be helped in another way.

An increase in homeless doesn't necessarily mean the emergency accommodation changes were a disaster. 

In fact, the numbers would, at least on the face of it, appear to show it's been wildly successful at getting people out of motels and into actual home, including 2,000 children.

Correction: An earlier version of the written opinion incorrectly stated the number of emergency housing applications that had been declined had increased to 4%. The rejection rate of those applications has actually increased to 32%. The written article has been amended to reflect this.