If you’re a male and need emergency housing, even for just a few nights, there’s often nowhere to lay your head. Merilee Andrew reports.

Western Welfare Agencies, which can comfortably cater for displaced females and their children, say the housing situation is desparately inadequate for males.

Citizen’s Advice Buraeu manager Diane Mellowes has trouble placing males. “I’ve had a run of them. There’s just this huge gap for homeless men or married people. ”

Her office is a common port of call for people who are low on funds but need a roof in a hurray. It’s not a problem if they’re female. But for everyone else – single males, or families with a husband or older boys – it’s “desperate”.

Salvation Army Henderson’s Zandrea Lee says she meets quite a few men who come in, down on their luck, to find nowhere local to send them.

The Aucklander, 6 September 2006, page 7.

The rest of the article describes a situation where the female and children where housed and the husband had to sleep in the car. Also how the streets become a home and how the places for men are not very pleasant.