Source: Radio New Zealand
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When Auckland couple Sue and Tony Kerr first opened their door to a homeless teenager as part of an organised programme to shelter young people in crisis, they were nervous about how it would go.
They are retired and worried the generation gap might prove problematic, that their home cooking would be left uneaten and that their things might be stolen.
“I was worried about security, needlessly, and that they might take anything that was precious to us and we haven’t found that was an issue,” Sue said.
“They always joined us for dinner … ate lots of vegetables so it was fine.”
They are one of six host homes in west Auckland in a programme called The Safety Net, who house homeless rangatahi to get them off the streets while more permanent housing is found.
It was working so well the programme was looking to expand into other parts of the city.
A recent report by youth support organisation Kick Back found teen homelessness was getting worse, with 22 percent of young people sleeping rough when they first sought support.
The Kerrs lived in Hobsonville and in between grandchildren’s visits they had so far had eight young people stay.
“It’s definitely given me more compassion and understanding about the problem and the need. If you can just help them this short time, all eight of them have apparently been helped into better accommodation. It’s just great to know we’ve helped.”
They had been hosting homeless young people for over a year – often for just a week at a time – one young man even stayed during Christmas 2024.
“I was putting up the Christmas tree which of course our sons always used to do … and I asked him if he’d like to join in and he had never decorated a Christmas tree before and I thought that is so sad he loved doing it, he was very proud of the outcome.”
They first heard about The Safety Net through their church, had a spare room and said they strongly felt it was something God wanted them to do.
Sue and Tony Kerr, host family for The Safety Net. RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Tony said having young people stay had opened his eyes to their struggles.
“The benefit has been benefiting them. It’s given me greater insight into what goes on that we didn’t have before.”
Josh Hendry oversaw The Safety Net and said since it began two years ago they had found stable housing for 36 rangatahi who were hosted by families short-term, just a few nights or a week.
He said often teenagers had left home due to a family breakdown, whether that was violence or substance abuse or even just a lack of beds for families living in poverty.
Hendry worked closely with his brother Aaron who ran the youth advocacy organisation Kick Back, helping young people off the streets.
“There’s very little youth specific housing for our young people but one significant gap that we’ve seen is for 16 and 17 year olds, where their reason for experiencing homeless might be to do with a family breakdown for a variety of reasons.”
He said it could take up to eight weeks for a young person in that situation to access government support, through the Youth Payment.
“In the meantime, how do we expect a young person to access housing when they can’t actually have the financial support when they need it.”
He said The Safety Net had six host homes, which included families, couples and singles, and wanted to expand in other suburbs by partnering with organisations. It was funded through grants and the hosts were volunteers.
Hendry said there was an extensive sign-up for host families to ensure they matched the tikanga of the programme, as well as police and reference checks.
He said they took care to match young people with suitable host homes, ensuring ongoing support for both the young person and hosts who also came from a variety of backgrounds.
“One of the big concerns is people have a lot of stigma around our young people and they’re actually just like any other young person. The potential with The Safety Net is we can intervene early, we can prevent our rangatahi from having a long term experience of homelessness, from experiencing all of the trauma that comes with that.”
Hendry said all the young people who were in education and hosted in homes were able to maintain their schooling, more than 80 percent had been housed and 30 percent had safely reconnected with whanau.
“We’ve seen amazing outcomes for our young people. When we provide an immediate safe, supportive caring place for our young people right when they need it most the ability to really change the trajectory of where that could have gone.”
He said the government’s proposal to give police more power to move on those rough sleeping or begging in public, from the age of 14 years old, was concerning because young people travelled to the city to access support.
“A lot of the young people we work with, even out west, will go to the city centre to get support so they’ll go to places like the Front Door or Rainbow Youth.
“The Safety Net is a direct solution to that. Rather than punishing people for being in the situation they’re in, if we actually provide them support we can really see that change.”
Massey Community Trust general manager Josh Hendry. RNZ / Marika Khabazi
No longer homeless
Late last year, Tina spent two weeks living in an alleyway while still attending high school because she had been kicked out of home.
She is 17 years-old and said it was a sensitive situation and she spent a few nights staying with a friend but was too ashamed to ask for help.
“I was very ashamed and embarassed to tell people that I was quite homeless during that time.”
So she sought shelter where she could hide – no one knew she was there.
“I was staying in my alleyway for two weeks and then that’s when I got tired of living that kind of life, I really did need help so I went to my school teacher and told her what happened and that’s when I found out about The Safety Net.”
Tina was placed with a host home where she stayed a few nights.
“I actually opened up to them, the host family that took me in. They were very sweet I loved them I really miss them as well.”
She said The Safety Net helped her to find a flat and she was now studying at tertiary level.
“It helped me build so much confidence in myself and now I’m doing everything that I love to do … I’m happy where I am now.”
Tina wanted to encourage other young people struggling with homelessness to ask for help.
“It’s always good to ask for help, it’s the bravest thing that you could do. One of the bravest things that I have accomplished was to ask for help and I stopped being embarassed.”
Another 17 year old, Mae, left home to escape escalating domestic violence last year and sought refuge at a hospital’s emergency department.
She said they let her sleep on a bench for a few nights while a social worker tried to find her somewhere to go but there was a lack of housing.
“The options were that I would have to sleep on the street and risk my safety or I would have to go back to the house I left and pretty much go through hell again.”
Mae said The Safety Net stepped in and gave her hope – she spent her first night with a host home in her room because she was so nervous but quickly found her feet.
“Being in a stable environment, it made me realise what I went through at my old house wasn’t normal. I realised what safety feels like and it was actually the first time I relaxed,” she said.
Mae was now living in stable housing with others her age, studying at tertiary level.
“Honestly it’s healing, I can imagine if I hadn’t have left home I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I have now.”
The hosts
In the last year, Ottolien Pentz had hosted six young people in her spare room, usually for less than a week each time.
She fostered about 25 children when her own were growing up and said teenagers were actually easier to have because they could voice their thoughts.
Each time she got a knock at her door, Pentz knew the young person would be feeling nervous about staying with a stranger.
“Most of them after a little [while] would say ‘I thought it would be really scary and I wondered if I would be safe’ and it’s a lovely surprise that they were safe and that there’s goodness in the world.”
Pentz said The Safety Net helped her as a host to set reasonable boundaries and whare rules that she talked the teenagers through when they arrived.
And she told them she would like them to rest and think about their next step, what they would like out of life.
“One of them said I felt cared for for the first time … and that I’m valuable enough that I can want good things,” Pentz said.
“Just for a few days there was none of the negative things in life. That’s what makes me sad, some people’s lives are in such a discombobulation that simple things are big things.”
Sue and Tony said they could get called at short notice to host a young person and that had been challenging because they liked to plan ahead.
But they wanted to help the teenagers who had no-one else to rely on – they said one of their sons experienced mental health issues and would unlikely have survived had it not been for their stable family home.
“It’s just tragic really, one young person said that at home they didn’t get enough food … they didn’t on the whole talk about the worst of the trauma but it is just so sad,” Sue said.
Hendry said they would like more host homes to come on board because having a stable roof, even for a few nights, gave young people a fresh perspective.
“One young person told me how she’d stayed in her room all night but she’d just stayed awake listening to the whanau laughing and having fun in the kitchen, because for her that was something she hadn’t really experienced.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/19/families-open-up-homes-to-homeless-teens-under-the-safety-net-programme/