Emergency housing and shelters are struggling to cope with the growing number of homeless women and children in Christchurch city.
The Christchurch City Mission and YWCA say they are inundated with women and children desperately seeking emergency housing – at levels never seen before.
Both say they have to turn away people, with the YWCA having a regular waiting list of on average 50 women plus their children.
Before the earthquakes the YWCA did not have a waiting list – they were never full. Continue reading