In the last year, the number of residents notifying Auckland City Mission about the welfare of people sleeping rough has doubled.

The notifications sounded the alarm on the dire conditions faced by those huddled in flimsy cardboard shelters, seeking refuge at bus stops, or living in their vehicles.

Homeless for 11 years, 36-year-old Ricky said he had seen more and more new faces joining his street whanau every day and they were young. Read more

It is shifting to a temporary site so the existing building in Hobson St can be upgraded.

Its accommodation, food bank, medical centre and other services will be located a few blocks away at 23 Union Street until a $90 million redevelopment is completed.

The former Prince of Wales Pub has housed the Auckland City Mission for 38 years, but the small, ageing building is no longer considered fit for purpose.

The new building will stand beside the present site, which has heritage status.

It will be expanded from two storeys to nine, with accommodation, more detox rooms, a larger medical centre, job training and other services.

It will include eighty high-density apartments. Forty units will be for the chronically homeless and the rest for those on the social housing waitlist.

It's the first New Zealand example of a Common Ground model - a form of supported living for those with highly complex needs, the City Mission's social services manager Helen Robinson said.

"Critical to this model is what we call a concierge service."

That means an all-hours social worker on site as well as security.

Those with complex needs have the option of living in the unit for life.

City Missioner Chris Farrelly said the wooden building has ecological features, gardens and looks to te ao Maori principles of manaakitanga and kawanatanga to create a welcoming environment.

Farrelly said there was growing demand in Auckland for the city mission's services - for shelter, for food, for healthcare and for a safe haven from domestic violence.

Around 400 homeless people have the Hobson St site listed as their official address.

Source

• radionz.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• maoritelevision.com
• Image: vernontava.com

McIntyre is the director of Downtown Community Ministry (DCM) in Wellington.

DCM's main focus is on ending homelessness and supporting people to get access to income, but she says putting money in the hat does not work.

"The complexity around poverty and the amount of people who are really poor and the degree to which they are poor, that's what I am seeing."

"I am not surprised for one second that that is reflected over in street begging."

"Whichever way you look at it, every single person who is out there street begging is poor."

But giving money and food directly to beggars is not the answer, she says.

DCM works alongside Ngati Kahungunu and the Soup Kitchen dispatching outreach teams who approach those on the street offering help to link them with the services they need.

Stuff reporter Bess Manson describes how at 9am McIntyre joins her staff and those who have come off the street for their morning karakia outside the inner city Luke's Lane premises.

The congregation sings Hallelujah in Te Reo. A heavenly sound rising from a dishevelled choir.

After a prayer, they all head inside. Some have come for help with housing matters, some to see the nurse or dentist.

Others to use the food bank or simply to spend time at Te Hapai, a welcoming and safe place within DCM for people to attend programmes, play music or just hang out.

McIntyre says giving money and food directly to beggars "is charity at it worst."

"We talk here about the practice of manaakitanga - it is built around the word mana.

Mana is about respectfulness, a lifting up of one another. Begging and giving to someone begging is not practising manaakitanga. It's a demeaning and disrespectful [act].

McIntyre suggests people should sit and have a chat with someone who is begging, 'say gidday, have a yarn."

But "Don't give anything. Ask if they are going to DCM, Soup Kitchen or somewhere else. That would be the most effective way to stop it."

Source

• Stuff
• Image: The Spinoff

The couple were gifted just over $2000 for the shelter and said they already had plenty of household appliances and cutlery sets. Continue reading