Housing crisis now an education crisis, says NZEI

<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The NZEI is backing calls for a national strategy to end homelessness amid mounting evidence that thousands of children who lack a warm safe home are also being denied their right to an education&period;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The Labour&comma; Green and M&amacr;ori Parties have released their report into solutions to homelessness&comma; following a cross-party inquiry which heard from hundreds of submitters&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;The homelessness crisis affecting thousands of New Zealand children is also an educational crisis&comma;&&num;8221&semi; says Jan Tinetti&comma; principal of decile one Merivale School in Tauranga and NZEI executive member&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;About ten percent of the children in my school are homeless&comma; with more families coming to see me most weeks to say they&&num;8217&semi;re about to lose their home&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;You can just see from looking in their eyes that these children are too tired to learn&period; Some of them don&&num;8217&semi;t have friends&comma; and won&&num;8217&semi;t even  try to make friends because they know they&&num;8217&semi;ll be moving soon&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;Children in deprived communities like ours often start school behind children in more wealthy communities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;Education should be their ticket out of poverty&comma; but if they&&num;8217&semi;re too tired or sick to learn they fall further and further behind&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s not just a tragedy for our children its a tragedy for the entire country&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Ms Tinetti says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The NZEI submitted to the inquiry&comma; calling for the Government to join other parties in a collaborative approach to end homelessness and child poverty&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;We support the inquiry&&num;8217&semi;s recommendations&comma; including a national strategy to end homelessness&comma; and also the recommendation to build more affordable homes&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Ms Tinetti says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;There is growing evidence that a lack of affordable housing in Auckland&comma; in particular is contributing to teacher shortages&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;We applaud the Labour&comma; Green and Maori Parties&&num;8217&semi; initiative in establishing the inquiry and we call on the Government to collaborate on cross-party solutions&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;