Trust is a key part of community

The Feilding Community Services Super Seniors Expo is a chance to find out all about the pensioner housing around the Feilding area provided by the Manawatu Community Trust.

Trust spokesman Albert Dodunski says it will have a stand at the expo to talk about what it does, and it is also running a series of seminars of interest to seniors.

‘‘On the day we will promote our housing and provide people with information on how to apply for a pensioner house,’’ Albert says. ‘‘Plus we’ll be talking to them about their needs and what things they would like to see around Feilding and things we could help them with in the areas of health and wellbeing.’’

The four half-hour free seminars cover a range of subjects. These include pre-paid funerals at 11am; making investments work for you at noon; setting up a power of attorney at 1pm; and asset planning at 2pm.

The community trust was set up by the Manawatu District Council in 2008 to promote pensioner housing and health and wellbeing in the community.

‘‘The trust owns and manages 205 pensioner flats and we have also facilitated the building of the Feilding Health Care Centre, which houses 12 doctors and other primary health services and opened last year,’’ he says.

There are 195 units in Feilding, six in Sanson and four in Rongotea.

‘‘The Feilding flats are built in groups ranging from 10 to 30 flats and we tend to treat them all as self-contained little communities. There’s a lot of communal support, there are liaison tenants and people look out for each other.’’

There is currently a waiting list of about 10 people and there are plans to build 12 more units.

‘‘During the expo people can come to our stall and we’ll go through the application process, we can provide an information booklet which talks about the services we provide and how we support tenants.