The life and death of Ben Hana -

The life and death of Ben Hana

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

Tricia Kane is a retired librarian and a grandmother. She writes:

Ben Hana, who had been living on the streets of Wellington since the 90s, died recently in hospital, in the course of a regular 3 monthly check. Could he have been helped to recover from his addictions?

Concerned individuals made efforts to help him, but he seemed too unwell to respond. After his death, there were letters to the editor, reports on television and an improvised memorial on the spot where he existed; a philanthropist paid for his funeral, and whanau and city dwellers gathered at Waitangi Park in a howling gale to remember him. He is gone now, God be good to him.

What lessons may be drawn from his life and death? One compassionate and practical course of action could be the reiterated plan put forward by Stephanie McIntyre, of the Downtown Community Ministry in Wellington, most recently in January in the Wellington newspaper the Dompost. She is clear that there is a need in Wellington for a ‘wet house’, where recovering alcoholics may be assisted, but where they will be permitted to have alcohol.

Recent American research indicates that wet houses lead to a marked reduction in alcohol intake. When this initiative was last proposed, neighbours in the suburb where a house had been selected felt so threatened by what they imagined to be a risk to their children, that the idea was dropped. The same difficulties are being experienced by the people who are searching for a house for homeless women in Wellington. Are we so heartless that we turn our backs on vulnerable men and women, our neighbours?

In this season of Lent, soon to begin, can we respond to the ‘call by faith to act with generous hearts’? I intend to post a donation towards establishing a wet house in Wellington, to Stephanie McIntyre at the Downtown Community Ministry (Wellington) Inc, P.O. Box 6133. I hope you will join me.