27 Jun 2014

Young homeless numbers rising

10:22 pm on 27 June 2014

An Auckland organisation working with homeless people says the number of people coming to them for help has doubled in the past six months.

People under the age of 24 make up 46% of the homeless population, according to government statistics.

In May, a group of homeless organisations were brought together by the Auckland Council to discuss challenges and look at possible solutions to help young homeless people.

The general manager of LifeWise, Corie Haddock, says there's been a big increase in general in the past six months.

"Historically, we used to on average have about 60 people a month. That's now climbed in the last three to six months to about 120 a month. On the streets of Auckland clearly there's an increase in youth homelessness and there's a number of reasons behind that."

Mr Haddock said some of those issues include a lack of support when people turn 17, problems around synthetic cannabis use and the region's housing crisis.