John Tamihere says if he's elected mayor of Auckland, he'll end homelessness within his first 18 months.
The former Labour MP made the bold promise on The AM Show on Tuesday morning, three days after confirming he'll challenge Phil Goff in October.
"Within 18 months of taking over, there won't be anyone laying on the streets," he told Duncan Garner. "There's no need for it and we've got enough resources to fix it, and we're rewarding poor behaviours and you'll continue to get them if you continue to reward them."
He says he'd implement similar strategies to those used in west Auckland.
"If you go out to Hendo [Henderson] and others, you don't have the type of nonsense you've got down in the CBD."
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Multi-million dollar scheme Housing First has moved more than 200 homeless adults off west Auckland's streets and into housing since its inception in 2017.
Mr Tamihere says there are several different avenues that could be explored as a means of funding his push to end homelessness.
"There's multiple central government funding envelopes that fix it, [including] emergency housing."
During the interview he railed against Mr Goff's mayoralty, which he says has left Auckland "a shambles".
"Part of my mayoral tilt was I've had a gutsful of the shift of power from voters to unelected bureaucrats."
He cited Auckland Transport's recent ticket prices bump as evidence residents aren't being consulted on major decisions.
He says he intends to "renegotiate" the city's fuel tax of 11.5c, claiming to support the concept of regional fuel taxes but not "Auckland being discriminated against".
He also says he wants greater control over immigration, for which Aucklanders have footed the bill.
"Immigration has been unmanaged for the last 10 to 15 years. I'm not anti-immigration, we have some outstanding people coming into the country offering great opportunities. But if you have unmanaged immigration, ratepayers in Auckland have to start funding it and it just gets out of control. It's not just petrol taxes, everything's going up."
He says he doesn't yet know where he stands on Auckland rates.
"I can't make false promises, but I want a total renegotiation of where we're headed. It can't be any worse than where it is now."
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