Workshops
Theme: Research

Workshops to gain insights from leading research and analysis on Aotearoa New Zealand's housing system.

Understanding Our Housing System

Presenters: Dr Jaimie Monk & David Monk, Home Foundation

Description: How does housing shape the wellbeing of the whānau you work with, and where does your work fit in the wider system? This interactive workshop uses the HOME model, a new system map of Aotearoa New Zealand's housing system developed by the Home Foundation, to help participants see the whole system and their place within it. Through a guided discussion and group activity, you'll explore how housing shapes the lives of individuals and whānau, how economic, financial, regulatory and social forces interact to produce the outcomes we see today, and how actions in one part of the system ripple through others. This workshop aims to help participants step back to see the bigger picture and spark ideas for collaboration and change.

Audience: Appropriate for anyone interested in housing system change or broadening their thinking about the role of housing.

He Kāinga Oranga Research Updates: Housing, Support, Health, and Wellbeing

Presenters: Chang Yu, Adara Goodwin, Nevil Pierse and Cheyenne Locke

Description: In this session, researchers from He Kāinga Oranga Housing Research Group and the New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities, at the University of Otago, Wellington, present three studies. Each 15-minute presentation links the ideas of housing, support, health, and wellbeing, and is followed by a Q&A.

  • Adara (Primary care and supporting people with experience of homelessness)
  • Chang (youth social outcomes and public housing)
  • Cheyenne (an intervention helping households to address fuel poverty)

Abstract: In New Zealand, public housing can offer households a permanent home and a rental-based approximation of owner-occupation. Using a social determinants framework, this paper examines youth justice outcomes among individuals aged 14–24 years who were continuously housed in public housing between 2013 and 2022, including those who resided in different public housing units over time. We find that reported police offences, court charges, and instances of victimisation were significantly lower in this cohort than in the general youth population, after controlling for a range of socio-economic factors. The protective factors of public housing were greater for young people who had experienced prior involvement with Oranga Tamariki (Ministry for Children) and for those living in households where at least one member had a history of offending. In this way, public housing may act as a strong protective factor to the difficult circumstances experienced by this cohort, resulting in a lower incidence of justice sector interactions.

Audience: This session is for attendees interested in the health and wellbeing of people living in public and community housing, including other researchers, Community Housing Providers, support organisations, health professionals, and those working in policy and/or governance roles.

Chang Yu

Dr Chang Yu
University of Otago

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Chang Yu holds a PhD in Finance and Economics from Victoria University of Wellington, where he gained extensive experience in data programming and statistical modeling. He further developed his expertise in public health while working as a data analyst at ESR, one of New Zealand's Crown Research Institutes.
Currently, his research interests focus on homelessness and various housing subsidies in New Zealand, such as the Emergency Housing Special Needs Grant (EHSNG), public housing, and the accommodation supplement. Much of his work utilises the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) to investigate the effects of these housing subsidies on individuals' wellbeing and their use of government services. Additionally, he is conducting research on the tenure trajectories of people in New Zealand. As a health economist, Chang Yu explores the intersection of economics and public health, particularly the relationship between government spending, economic policy, and population wellbeing.

Adara Goodwin
University of Otago

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Adara Irwin-Gordon is an Assistant Research Fellow at the University of Otago, Wellington, where she contributes to qualitative research exploring experiences with the housing support system in Aotearoa. Adara is leading research motivated by her experience as a medical receptionist for a very low-cost access service in Wellington. Her work examines the interaction between primary health care services and the housing support system, and specifically administrative support that falls on primary health care providers when patients attend the GP for housing support needs. Through this she aims to understand the efficacy of the interactions with the housing support system, and to identify barriers that restrict and delay access to housing support.
Navigating housing bureaucracy: How does the housing support system impact from primary health care providers?
This research explores how primary health care providers interact with the welfare and housing support system, particularly the administrative tasks involved when patients attend the GP with housing support applications. Through semi-structured interviews we aim to understand what works well, what doesn’t, and how these processes impact both providers and patients. Our goal is to support improvements that reduce burden on primary care and improve access to housing support for patients.

Cheyenne Locke
University of Otago

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Cheyenne Locke is an Assistant Research Fellow at the University of Otago, Wellington. Her research explores the lived experiences of those facing energy poverty. Inspired by her own experience of mental health and disability, she places explicit focus on vulnerable groups and the impact energy hardship has on their wellbeing. She has led qualitative research examining energy hardship, housing quality, disability, and wellbeing in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her work centers lived experience, exploring the embodied, relational, and structural impacts of energy hardship, including its effects on health, wellbeing, and everyday life. Cheyenne’s research aims to inform equitable housing, energy, and social policy, with a strong focus on justice-oriented and people-centered solutions.
A Slice of Toast for Everyone: Supporting ontological security and wellbeing through a not-for-profit energy provider. - This research presents qualitative findings from 21 customers on the Energy Wellbeing Program provided by Toast Electric – New Zealand’s first not-for-profit electricity retailer. We aim to understand how wellbeing and ontological security are impacted by energy hardship and housing quality. And furthermore, how interventions must move beyond single-solution approaches. 

Gavin Pike

Prof. Nevil Pierse
University of Otago

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Professor Nevil Pierse is co-leader of He Kainga Oranga/Housing and Health Research Programme. Originally a statistician by training, his current work is done in partnership with a wide variety of stakeholders including government and community organisations and is focused on the design and implementation of natural experiments: That improve the home quality and homelessness and the impact on health and other social determinants. He is currently working with the Healthy Housing Initiative with which looks at home interventions to prevent rehospitalisation of children with housing related disease. This programme has accessed and remediated over 50,000 homes in New Zealand, and resulted over 10,000 prevented hospital admissions. The Healthy Housing Initiative was awarded the Prime Minister Sprit of Service award in 2019.

Nevil also leads a programme one looking at optimizing the housing system especially for those without housing. He works closely with exemplar of The Peoples Project in Hamilton. Nevil has a keen interest in big data and leads 5 Housing and Health projects on the integrated data infrastructure. In 2021 the group was awarded the Rutherford Medal for the quality and Impact of their work.

Understanding Communities, Housing Redevelopment & Wellbeing: Evidence from Te Hotonga Hapori

Presenters: Te Hotonga Hapori Research Team (AUT)

Description: How do neighbourhoods and housing redevelopment shape wellbeing across Aotearoa, and what can we learn from comparing communities over time and place? This interactive workshop shares emerging findings from Te Hotonga Hapori – Connecting Communities, a programme examining how housing, neighbourhood environments, and access to resources influence wellbeing outcomes. The session brings together multiple strands of evidence, including overall programme insights, deprivation analysis, changes in wellbeing over time, and innovative spatial and environmental methods. Participants will explore how different dimensions of neighbourhood context - from access to services, to street-level environment quality, to broader socioeconomic conditions - combine to shape lived experience.Through interactive discussion and visual tools, the workshop aims to deepen understanding of how place-based factors influence wellbeing, and to support thinking about how evidence can inform housing and community development practice.

Audience: Suitable for researchers, policy makers, and community housing practitioners interested in neighbourhood wellbeing, housing redevelopment impacts, and innovative place-based research methods.

Gavin Pike

Prof. Scott Duncan
Te Hotonga Hapori

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Scott is the Te Hotonga Hapori Programme Director, and Professor in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health at AUT. His research centres on creating environments that allow people of all ages to live healthy, active lives. As Director of Te Hotonga Hapori, his role is to liaise with our key partners and collaborators while providing strategic direction and oversight across all aspects of the programme.
Gavin Pike

Prof. Dan Exeter
Te Hotonga Hapori

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Dan is a Professor of Population Health at the University of Auckland, specialising in health geography and spatial epidemiology. His research uses big data to address inequities in health and social outcomes.
Gavin Pike

Dr Vivienne Ivory
Te Hotonga Hapori

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Vivienne is the Technical Principal, Social Science, Resilience and Public Health at WSP’s Research & Innovation Centre in Petone. She takes a systems approach to investigating mobility and liveable environments, and understanding how neighbourhood infrastructure can create healthy, equitable living environments.
Gavin Pike

Dr Lisa Meehan
Te Hotonga Hapori

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Lisa is an applied economist at the NZ Policy Research Institute at AUT with extensive experience across academia, the OECD, the New Zealand public sector, and economic consulting. She specialises in using integrated data to examine labour market dynamics, firm performance, education, health, and justice outcomes.
Gavin Pike

Dr Anantha Narayanan
Te Hotonga Hapori

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Recently graduating with a PhD exploring ‘big data’ using advanced data science methodologies, Ananth’s role is to explore, model and predict population-wellbeing outcomes using machine-learning techniques and administrative data from Statistics NZ Integrated Database Infrastructure. 
Gavin Pike

Dr Conal Smith
Te Hotonga Hapori

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Conal is a Wellbeing Economist and Principal at Kōtātā Insight, based in Wellington. His expertise includes wellbeing economics, valuing intangible costs, social capital, and behavioral economics. Conal is also a member of the World Wellbeing Panel, a senior associate at the Institute of Governance and Policy Studies and has held senior economist roles at the OECD and various NZ government agencies.
Gavin Pike

Dr Tom Stewart
Te Hotonga Hapori

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Tom is a Senior Research Fellow and Statistics Advisor at the AUT Human Potential Research Institute. His work is focused on how the environment is related to behaviour and health, and how optimising these environments can produce better health and wellbeing outcomes. As part of this work, Tom provides consultation on research design analysis methods.

6 Pillars of Reintegration and the Role of Housing

Presenters: Paul Barber

Description: In May 2026 The Salvation Army Te Ope Whakaora released the first of a series of papers on the 6 pillars of reintegration, with the first focused on the role of housing.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, more than 43 percent of people released from prison return within two years, and almost two‑thirds (59.2%) reoffend, highlighting the urgent need for effective reintegration strategies that support people to build stable, crime‑free lives upon release.

The 6-Pillars is an evidence‑based model, used by the Department of Corrections and aligned with international best practice, provides a coherent framework for understanding what people need to successfully reintegrate. Because these pillars reflect real‑world experience, overlaps between them are expected and intentional. Barriers in one area often reinforce challenges in another. For example, unstable housing can worsen mental health, limit access to employment, or hinder family reconnection.

This presentation focuses on the first SPPU paper “Making Home base” that looks at Pillar One: Accommodation because finding accommodation is a critical part of successful reintegration.

Each report in the full series explores one pillar in depth, drawing on research, policy analysis, The Salvation Army’s frontline expertise and lived experience insights.

Together, they aim to provide a comprehensive picture of reintegration in Aotearoa New Zealand and identify practical reforms to improve outcomes for individuals, whānau and communities

Audience: Researchers, Community Housing Providers, support organisations, and those working in policy and/or governance roles

Gavin Pike

Paul Barber
The Salvation Army Te Ope Whakaora

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Paul Barber, Principal Social Policy Analyst with the Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit of The Salvation Army Te Ope Whakaora.

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