3 November, 2025

Hauraki Corner death ‘reminder of homelessness impact on women’

The death of a woman in the Hauraki Corner public toilets last month underlines a growing problem across Auckland, says the project director for the Coalition to End Women’s Homelessness, Victoria Crockford.
“Her death is a painful reminder of how homelessness strips women of safety, dignity and the simple comfort of a place to rest. We hold her in our thoughts with respect,” Crockford told the Observer.
“While we may not know her name or her story, we know she mattered.
“She was someone’s daughter, someone’s friend, someone with hopes and struggles, and a life of value.”
The death, which is not considered suspicious, has been referred by the police to the coroner. The woman’s body was discovered by a toilet cleaner on 24 September.
Crockford, whose group has recently issued a report, “Understanding Barriers and Solutions to Women’s Homelessness in Aotearoa”, says the latest Census showed 57,000 women and 54,000 men experienced severe housing deprivation – including rough sleeping, living in someone’s garage, sleeping in a car, staying on a couch, or living in uninhabitable housing.

Homeless women were less visible on the streets than men, due to safety fears that meant they would do what they could to avoid sleeping rough, she said.
This also made them less visible to the community and often to social services.
Emergency and transitional housing options were often mixed gender and women were reluctant to access them because many had experienced trauma at the hands of men in the form of domestic or sexual violence.
The coalition’s research had further identified that women with children and a growing number of older women priced out of the rental market were particularly impacted, said Crockford.
“Our young mums and our nanas are at risk because we do not have viable, long-term choices available for them.
“Organisations like De Paul House on the North Shore do brilliant work and urgently need the types of policies and funding that enable them to provide for women and families with wrap-around support.
“That requires a bipartisan strategy on housing and homelessness that strives to understand and meet the needs of women. We are nowhere near that right now,” said Crockford.

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