Gimme Shelter's Homeless and Rough Sleeper Health Survey

By James Crow

NZ $6,493 pledged


103 people pledged


Closed


NZ $20,000 minimum target


32 32% Complete

This campaign failed to reach its target by 01/07/2016 at 8:00 PM (NZST) and is now closed.

Make a Pledge

About

Gimme Shelter's Homeless And Rough Sleeper Health Survey

Project 2016-04-05 16:25:02 +1200

 

 

 

My story

Hi, I'm James from Gimme Shelter. Three years ago a friend of mine approached me for some advice. She had been helping a young man who was sleeping rough in central Auckland and she wanted to know if I had any ideas on how we could collectively do more to help the greater issue. I went away, looked at the big picture and found that besides hardworking and underresourced front line services, there was nothing tangible being done that either politicians could champion or the public could rally to.

What homeless problem?

Here in New Zealand, like in many countries, we have a problem. That problem is homelessness. But we won’t admit to it. In many other developed countries the issue of homelessness, and specifically rough sleepers, has been in government crosshairs for more than a decade. This has led to most countries cited commissioning good surveying and data analysis programmes to target funding at those most in need and in a way that is shown to work. In our opinion, New Zealand is a bit behind in starting this process of serious data collection - and we're not good at waiting - so Gimme Shelter is ready to roll up our sleeves and do that ourselves. Good current information is key to solving any probelm, so Gimme Shelter will #LetEveryPersonCount

How big a problem are we talking about here?

We know it's estimated* that in 2006 there were as many as 5,000 people sleeping rough in New Zealand. With population growth, the Christchurch earthquakes and housing shortages this figure could now be in the range of 6,700 people - but it could be far greater. We just don't know. And if we don't have the data, NZ can't find and allocate resources appropriately. Gimme Shelter intends to find out. And how do we do that? With your help of course!

[* Source (1.) to Otago University, Wellington ]

 

Listen to James explain the HARSH survey and New Zealand's current policy situation.

How does New Zealand differ from other countries?

In many other countries homelessness has been tackled head-on due mainly to the undeniable fact it will almost always cost more to taxpayers to keep a person on the street than to secure them in a home and wrap support around them from there. This is called "Housing First" and it has worked very well in state funded project across the US with Utah a standout*. This approach has also been seen to be far more successful long-term, and is even being adopted by individual support agencies here, but we still have no mandate or policy from government. Why not?

[* Source (2.) to The Daily Show ]

How real change occurs.

Gimme Shelter believes government policy is the only way to create tangible change in a large society. At the same time a society must know the true size of an issue if they are to apply presure to have it solved.

Real change

How you gonna do that guys?

I have created something I call a Crowd Social Survey tool. This allows a member of the public or a community group to survey a rough sleeper and securely upload that data to the cloud before being erased from their phone. This means our ability to survey New Zealand's population is limited only by the number of people involved. I call this The Homeless and Rough Sleeper Health Survey, and it means a new way of resolving this issue of good data.

 

 Gimme Shelter App

 

Funding and how we plan to invest it.

Our HARSH survey requires three key things:

  1. It must be easily accessible by the public via their phone or mobile device.
  2. It must be easy to use and offer a painless process for both the surveyer and the member of the public being surveyed.
  3. All data collected must be securely handled at all times and protected once stored. In addition, no data must be left on the surveyer's phone.

To achieve these goals we require a well designed website applicatin that allows for ease of use and security of data.

$20,000

$25,000

$30,000+

  1. HARSH app creation and launch.
  1. HARSH app creation and launch.
  2. Market the survey to public and community groups nationwide.
  1. HARSH app creation and launch.
  2. Market the survey to public and community groups nationwide.
  3. Produce training videos and hold workshops in key locatons to support training of App use.
     
 

 Our team

 
  

Gimme Shelter Logo

"We have a tight team with a laser like focus"

James Crow - Founder and instigator

Co-founder of Nice Blocks and Little Island, the Fairtrade and Living Wage employer. James is always keen to lend some commonsense to a social issue. He is also currently writing this in the third person.

Bonnie Sumner

Bonnie Sumner – Communications and social media

With a decade's experience covering most comms hats, including journalist, copywriter and PR manager, Bonnie now mixes her time between parenting, freelancing and Instagram stalking.


 

Tagaloa Lui Tusani

Tagaloa Lui Tusani of Website Robots – Website and App development.

Twenty years ago Tagaloa Lui Tusani was given a second chance, and from that moment he has dedicated his life to helping others achieve their very best. He believes in the value of employment in society and it is for this reason he focuses on growing employment in our communities.

  
 

Rewards

A big thanks to all our brandmates for their rewards.

  

 

#LetEveryPersonCount

www.facebook.com/gimmeshelternz

 Data Sources:

  1. [* Source Otago University, Wellington ] - Severe Housing Deprivation: The problem and its measurement

  2. [* Source The Daily Show ] - Watch here
 

 

Comments

Updates 3

We’re just getting started

12/05/2016 at 8:19 AM

We’ve been hard at work spreading the word on New Zealand's need for real data and policy for rough sleeping homeless - and people are starting to listen.

Last night's piece on TV3's Story showed our task is not a popular one among some frontline services, but others demanding better data stand with us and that’s a good start.


Watch the TV3 Story segment

The recent rise in stories around begging and council bylaws is also shedding more light on symptoms of lack of policy and funding for frontline services and also means we have the public's attention.

All of this means we can’t stop now and let that little issue of funding and deadlines slow us down. So in typical disruptor style we’re just changing the rules. As of this week we will be extending our Pledge Me campaign and also join Action Station to create a petition demanding Government policy and acknowledgement of rough sleeping homeless as a distinct and growing societal issue. More on this next week.



We are also still getting our message out to the broader public so for all of you who haven’t yet please share our Facebook page, recent post about the Pledge Me campaign or just share the video also up on our page.




Our Facebook page



Our Twitter account



Our Instagram



Our Pledge Me

Our Website

Big thanks from the Gimme Shelter team.

We’ve hit almost $3,000 in just a few days!

17/04/2016 at 7:10 PM

It’s been an amazing first few days for us here at Gimme Shelter. First our story has appeared in the new North & South magazine and then yesterday a last minute interview in Kim Hill’s Saturday Morning show on RNZ. This marked a real milestone as it was just four months ago that our founder James spoke with Kim and made public his plans to launch the Pledge Me campaign for the HARSH survey.

Listen to the radio interview here.

The support you, our initial funders and supporters, have shown is not only a boost to our campaign total but also further confirms our belief that New Zealand does care about the issue of rough sleeping homelessness and you want to see innovation in its solution. So a big thank you for coming on board so quickly.

Here is a short link to the Pledge Me page: http://pldg.me/gimmeshelter

We are also still getting our message out to the public so for all of you who haven’t yet please share our Facebook page, recent post about the Pledge Me campaign or just share the video also up on our page.

Our Facebook page

Our Twitter account

Our Instagram

Big thanks from the Gimme Shelter team.

$500 in the first five minutes!

15/04/2016 at 10:57 AM

Thanks to everyone that has helped us to this stage and for jumping on board so fast. This is gonna be fun!

    Pledgers 103

    Aroha Harawira
    23/04/2016 at 9:59am

    "James, you're an inspiration!!"

    Anonymous pledger
    23/04/2016 at 12:20am

    "Thank you for giving a damn about the Nz homeless!! "

    E T-Rex McMantis
    22/04/2016 at 11:01pm
    Ben Barton
    22/04/2016 at 10:18pm
    Leilani Tamu
    22/04/2016 at 7:05pm

    "You have my full support James! Let me know what else I can do to help "

    Anonymous pledger
    22/04/2016 at 5:18pm

    "Research essential if homelessness is to be sorted."

    Vicky Kyan
    22/04/2016 at 5:03pm

    "Everyone deserves a warm and dry bed to sleep in at night..... and I wish the team at HARSH every success."

    Katie Patricia Jones
    21/04/2016 at 12:52pm
    Anonymous pledger
    19/04/2016 at 10:12am

    "..innovative important project - go James.."

    Cath Handley
    19/04/2016 at 9:28am
    Mikey
    18/04/2016 at 9:32pm

    "Fantastic campaign! I wish you the best of luck."

    Anonymous pledger
    18/04/2016 at 8:54pm

    "This is an excellent initiative to assess the problems for rough sleeping and homeless people in New Zealand! Good luck!"

    Louise Banks
    18/04/2016 at 5:19pm

    "Such a great cause! You've got our support! All the best. "

    Anonymous pledger
    18/04/2016 at 4:26pm
    Amy
    18/04/2016 at 4:12pm
    carol weaver
    18/04/2016 at 12:16pm
    Rachel Nicholls
    17/04/2016 at 10:43pm
    Sarah Hughes
    17/04/2016 at 7:05pm

    "Love your work. Such a great idea. :-)"

    Shelly Biswell
    17/04/2016 at 1:57pm
    Rachel Batchelor
    17/04/2016 at 12:01pm

    "Good work guys x"

    Anonymous pledger
    16/04/2016 at 9:33pm
    Anonymous pledger
    16/04/2016 at 9:20pm
    lilian
    16/04/2016 at 8:37pm

    "Big Love"

    Martyn Howells
    16/04/2016 at 5:54pm

    "Great idea, without the facts we can't know the size of the issue and come up with possible solutions."

    Anonymous pledger
    16/04/2016 at 5:40pm
    Anonymous pledger
    16/04/2016 at 3:16pm
    Shirley and Kevin Wells
    16/04/2016 at 2:40pm

    "Go for it!"

    Anonymous pledger
    16/04/2016 at 2:19pm
    Anonymous pledger
    16/04/2016 at 11:52am

    "You will, hopefully, highlight a huge social problem - lack of appropriate housing for MANY sections of the NZ population "

    Anonymous pledger
    16/04/2016 at 11:27am

    "I just heard you on the radio bro. I am so encouraged by your initiative in going after this injustice man, we need men like you to step up!"

    Followers 7

    Followers of Gimme Shelter's Homeless and Rough Sleeper Health Survey

    Gimme Shelter's Homeless And Rough Sleeper Health Survey

    Project 2016-04-05 16:25:02 +1200

     

     

     

    My story

    Hi, I'm James from Gimme Shelter. Three years ago a friend of mine approached me for some advice. She had been helping a young man who was sleeping rough in central Auckland and she wanted to know if I had any ideas on how we could collectively do more to help the greater issue. I went away, looked at the big picture and found that besides hardworking and underresourced front line services, there was nothing tangible being done that either politicians could champion or the public could rally to.

    What homeless problem?

    Here in New Zealand, like in many countries, we have a problem. That problem is homelessness. But we won’t admit to it. In many other developed countries the issue of homelessness, and specifically rough sleepers, has been in government crosshairs for more than a decade. This has led to most countries cited commissioning good surveying and data analysis programmes to target funding at those most in need and in a way that is shown to work. In our opinion, New Zealand is a bit behind in starting this process of serious data collection - and we're not good at waiting - so Gimme Shelter is ready to roll up our sleeves and do that ourselves. Good current information is key to solving any probelm, so Gimme Shelter will #LetEveryPersonCount

    How big a problem are we talking about here?

    We know it's estimated* that in 2006 there were as many as 5,000 people sleeping rough in New Zealand. With population growth, the Christchurch earthquakes and housing shortages this figure could now be in the range of 6,700 people - but it could be far greater. We just don't know. And if we don't have the data, NZ can't find and allocate resources appropriately. Gimme Shelter intends to find out. And how do we do that? With your help of course!

    [* Source (1.) to Otago University, Wellington ]

     

    Listen to James explain the HARSH survey and New Zealand's current policy situation.

    How does New Zealand differ from other countries?

    In many other countries homelessness has been tackled head-on due mainly to the undeniable fact it will almost always cost more to taxpayers to keep a person on the street than to secure them in a home and wrap support around them from there. This is called "Housing First" and it has worked very well in state funded project across the US with Utah a standout*. This approach has also been seen to be far more successful long-term, and is even being adopted by individual support agencies here, but we still have no mandate or policy from government. Why not?

    [* Source (2.) to The Daily Show ]

    How real change occurs.

    Gimme Shelter believes government policy is the only way to create tangible change in a large society. At the same time a society must know the true size of an issue if they are to apply presure to have it solved.

    Real change

    How you gonna do that guys?

    I have created something I call a Crowd Social Survey tool. This allows a member of the public or a community group to survey a rough sleeper and securely upload that data to the cloud before being erased from their phone. This means our ability to survey New Zealand's population is limited only by the number of people involved. I call this The Homeless and Rough Sleeper Health Survey, and it means a new way of resolving this issue of good data.

     

     Gimme Shelter App

     

    Funding and how we plan to invest it.

    Our HARSH survey requires three key things:

    1. It must be easily accessible by the public via their phone or mobile device.
    2. It must be easy to use and offer a painless process for both the surveyer and the member of the public being surveyed.
    3. All data collected must be securely handled at all times and protected once stored. In addition, no data must be left on the surveyer's phone.

    To achieve these goals we require a well designed website applicatin that allows for ease of use and security of data.

    $20,000

    $25,000

    $30,000+

    1. HARSH app creation and launch.
    1. HARSH app creation and launch.
    2. Market the survey to public and community groups nationwide.
    1. HARSH app creation and launch.
    2. Market the survey to public and community groups nationwide.
    3. Produce training videos and hold workshops in key locatons to support training of App use.
         
     

     Our team

     
      

    Gimme Shelter Logo

    "We have a tight team with a laser like focus"

    James Crow - Founder and instigator

    Co-founder of Nice Blocks and Little Island, the Fairtrade and Living Wage employer. James is always keen to lend some commonsense to a social issue. He is also currently writing this in the third person.

    Bonnie Sumner

    Bonnie Sumner – Communications and social media

    With a decade's experience covering most comms hats, including journalist, copywriter and PR manager, Bonnie now mixes her time between parenting, freelancing and Instagram stalking.


     

    Tagaloa Lui Tusani

    Tagaloa Lui Tusani of Website Robots – Website and App development.

    Twenty years ago Tagaloa Lui Tusani was given a second chance, and from that moment he has dedicated his life to helping others achieve their very best. He believes in the value of employment in society and it is for this reason he focuses on growing employment in our communities.

      
     

    Rewards

    A big thanks to all our brandmates for their rewards.

      

     

    #LetEveryPersonCount

    www.facebook.com/gimmeshelternz

     Data Sources:

    1. [* Source Otago University, Wellington ] - Severe Housing Deprivation: The problem and its measurement

    2. [* Source The Daily Show ] - Watch here
     

     

    Comments

    We’re just getting started

    12/05/2016 at 8:19 AM

    We’ve been hard at work spreading the word on New Zealand's need for real data and policy for rough sleeping homeless - and people are starting to listen.

    Last night's piece on TV3's Story showed our task is not a popular one among some frontline services, but others demanding better data stand with us and that’s a good start.

    
Watch the TV3 Story segment

    The recent rise in stories around begging and council bylaws is also shedding more light on symptoms of lack of policy and funding for frontline services and also means we have the public's attention.

    All of this means we can’t stop now and let that little issue of funding and deadlines slow us down. So in typical disruptor style we’re just changing the rules. As of this week we will be extending our Pledge Me campaign and also join Action Station to create a petition demanding Government policy and acknowledgement of rough sleeping homeless as a distinct and growing societal issue. More on this next week.

    

We are also still getting our message out to the broader public so for all of you who haven’t yet please share our Facebook page, recent post about the Pledge Me campaign or just share the video also up on our page.


    

Our Facebook page



    Our Twitter account

    

Our Instagram



    Our Pledge Me

    Our Website

    Big thanks from the Gimme Shelter team.

    We’ve hit almost $3,000 in just a few days!

    17/04/2016 at 7:10 PM

    It’s been an amazing first few days for us here at Gimme Shelter. First our story has appeared in the new North & South magazine and then yesterday a last minute interview in Kim Hill’s Saturday Morning show on RNZ. This marked a real milestone as it was just four months ago that our founder James spoke with Kim and made public his plans to launch the Pledge Me campaign for the HARSH survey.

    Listen to the radio interview here.

    The support you, our initial funders and supporters, have shown is not only a boost to our campaign total but also further confirms our belief that New Zealand does care about the issue of rough sleeping homelessness and you want to see innovation in its solution. So a big thank you for coming on board so quickly.

    Here is a short link to the Pledge Me page: http://pldg.me/gimmeshelter

    We are also still getting our message out to the public so for all of you who haven’t yet please share our Facebook page, recent post about the Pledge Me campaign or just share the video also up on our page.

    Our Facebook page

    Our Twitter account

    Our Instagram

    Big thanks from the Gimme Shelter team.

    $500 in the first five minutes!

    15/04/2016 at 10:57 AM

    Thanks to everyone that has helped us to this stage and for jumping on board so fast. This is gonna be fun!

      Aroha Harawira
      23/04/2016 at 9:59am

      "James, you're an inspiration!!"

      Anonymous pledger
      23/04/2016 at 12:20am

      "Thank you for giving a damn about the Nz homeless!! "

      E T-Rex McMantis
      22/04/2016 at 11:01pm
      Ben Barton
      22/04/2016 at 10:18pm
      Leilani Tamu
      22/04/2016 at 7:05pm

      "You have my full support James! Let me know what else I can do to help "

      Anonymous pledger
      22/04/2016 at 5:18pm

      "Research essential if homelessness is to be sorted."

      Vicky Kyan
      22/04/2016 at 5:03pm

      "Everyone deserves a warm and dry bed to sleep in at night..... and I wish the team at HARSH every success."

      Katie Patricia Jones
      21/04/2016 at 12:52pm
      Anonymous pledger
      19/04/2016 at 10:12am

      "..innovative important project - go James.."

      Cath Handley
      19/04/2016 at 9:28am
      Mikey
      18/04/2016 at 9:32pm

      "Fantastic campaign! I wish you the best of luck."

      Anonymous pledger
      18/04/2016 at 8:54pm

      "This is an excellent initiative to assess the problems for rough sleeping and homeless people in New Zealand! Good luck!"

      Louise Banks
      18/04/2016 at 5:19pm

      "Such a great cause! You've got our support! All the best. "

      Anonymous pledger
      18/04/2016 at 4:26pm
      Amy
      18/04/2016 at 4:12pm
      carol weaver
      18/04/2016 at 12:16pm
      Rachel Nicholls
      17/04/2016 at 10:43pm
      Sarah Hughes
      17/04/2016 at 7:05pm

      "Love your work. Such a great idea. :-)"

      Shelly Biswell
      17/04/2016 at 1:57pm
      Rachel Batchelor
      17/04/2016 at 12:01pm

      "Good work guys x"

      Anonymous pledger
      16/04/2016 at 9:33pm
      Anonymous pledger
      16/04/2016 at 9:20pm
      lilian
      16/04/2016 at 8:37pm

      "Big Love"

      Martyn Howells
      16/04/2016 at 5:54pm

      "Great idea, without the facts we can't know the size of the issue and come up with possible solutions."

      Anonymous pledger
      16/04/2016 at 5:40pm
      Anonymous pledger
      16/04/2016 at 3:16pm
      Shirley and Kevin Wells
      16/04/2016 at 2:40pm

      "Go for it!"

      Anonymous pledger
      16/04/2016 at 2:19pm
      Anonymous pledger
      16/04/2016 at 11:52am

      "You will, hopefully, highlight a huge social problem - lack of appropriate housing for MANY sections of the NZ population "

      Anonymous pledger
      16/04/2016 at 11:27am

      "I just heard you on the radio bro. I am so encouraged by your initiative in going after this injustice man, we need men like you to step up!"

      Followers of Gimme Shelter's Homeless and Rough Sleeper Health Survey

      This campaign was unsuccessful and finished on 01/07/2016 at 8:00 PM.