Rough sleepers are moving out of Auckland's central city into neighbouring suburbs because of fears about the government's proposed move-on order legislation, according to Lifewise, the Auckland-based social service provider that works with children, older people and those living on the street. RNZ

Lifewise chief executive Pam Elgar said the shift is happening even before the Summary Offences (Move-on Orders) Amendment Bill has passed. The bill, numbered 310 of 2026, is a government bill currently before Parliament, with the Justice Select Committee having heard oral submissions from a group weighted heavily toward opposition. RNZ

The bill would give police new powers to issue move-on orders requiring a person to leave a specified public area, targeting what the government describes as low-level disorderly behaviour to prevent escalation. Beehive The select committee document accompanying the bill lists begging and rough sleeping explicitly as forms of disorderly or disruptive behaviour, alongside unreasonably obstructing entry to a trade or business and breaching the peace. Parliament

Hansard records show the bill was debated in the House on 21 May 2026, with New Zealand Police itself opposing the criminalisation of rough sleeping during that debate. Hansard Submitters at select committee stage went further, calling the orders "morally indefensible," "unnecessary" and a breach of the Bill of Rights. RNZ

The numbers underpinning the debate are contested. Auckland Council's latest count found 706 people known to be sleeping in cars, on streets and in local parks in January, up from 653 the previous January but down from a peak of 940 in September 2025. Elgar cautioned against reading too much into that figure, noting the count is carried out by council compliance officers who cover only a small portion of the city and cannot be extrapolated into a broader picture of homelessness. She said numbers coming through Lifewise's Merge service and the Auckland City Mission are rising, a trend she argued sits at odds with the apparent decline in the official count. RNZ

Lifewise outreach worker Kat Feo told RNZ that clients are arriving in Auckland from Wellington, Christchurch, Rotorua and Hamilton, describing an outreach team of six sharing a single car to cover the added ground. One client cited, Victoria Crawford, originally from Wellington, came to Auckland in 2024 to enter rehabilitation after serving a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence and was released without any accommodation arranged. RNZ

An earlier RNZ report flagged concerns that at-risk youth would be swept up under the new powers, since the bill applies to disorderly behaviour "anywhere in public" rather than being confined to specific hotspots. RNZ Public health experts have separately argued the changes risk criminalising homelessness among some of the country's most vulnerable young people. RNZ via Facebook A Conversation piece framed the debate as a test of whether the measures make cities safer or revive a Victorian-era approach to poverty. The Conversation

The government has paired the enforcement bill with additional spending. In June it announced a further $14.5 million in support for rough sleepers, and says 674 households that had been sleeping rough have been moved into stable housing since September 2025. Beehive That follows a September 2025 announcement of five immediate actions intended to expand support and pathways into social housing. Beehive

The dual-track approach — funding for housing pathways alongside a policing tool aimed at the same population — sits at the centre of the select committee's task. Submitters and Police have both raised doubts about the enforcement side even as government figures point to placements achieved through the funding side. Whether those two tracks are complementary or working against each other is likely to be argued out as the bill moves through further stages, particularly given the on-the-ground reports of displacement into surrounding suburbs before the law has even taken effect.

K Road residents discussed the practical effects of move-on orders on Morning Report, a segment that predates the current bill's introduction and speaks to how the tool has already been used informally in Auckland's inner city. RNZ Morning Report That history gives select committee members a working example to weigh against the new, wider statutory power now before them.