Town hit by housing and meth crisis
It has been voted the country’s most beautiful town a record 16 times, but Feilding’s graceful standing is under threat as it battles rising drug use and a housing crisis.
Counsellors in the Manawatu¯ town are urging officials to unite and establish a task force that would gauge how bad the problem is and how to combat it.
Manchester House Social Services is helping 20 people overcome their addiction to methamphetamine, but there is anecdotal evidence the problem stretches much further and across all socioeconomic groups.
Social housing is also at an all-time low. Of the 157 Housing
New Zealand homes in Feilding, just two are vacant. Other emergency accommodation providers, such as the Feilding Caravan Park and Denbigh Hotel, are also full.
At a Manawatu¯ District Council meeting on Thursday, the centre’s manager Anne Williamson spoke of divided families as drug addiction took over loved ones. Others without a place to stay slept in cars.
‘‘Individuals suffering from any of those issues have mostly lost their ability or strength to overcome negative influences on their own and this is where the community must step up,’’ she told the council.
Some clients had children raised by their grandparents because the parents spent their last money on another fix, Williamson said. The problem then filtered into a user’s neighbourhood, school and place of employment.
The centre couldn’t afford to tackle the problem on its own, with existing services being funded from a budgeting surplus of just $17,000.
‘‘We can’t work alone. Feilding does not have a meth support programme running at this time. Sixty per cent of our clientele have a meth-related problem when they come through our doors, [including] whether it’s a grandparent looking after a grandkid.’’
Manawatu¯ mayor Helen Worboys questioned whether solutions to the two problems should be funded by the Government, but said the council would look at what help it could provide. ‘‘These are nationwide problems,’’ she said.
Cr Shane Casey questioned whether there were enough users in Manawatu¯ to warrant a detox centre or programme being established.
‘‘I know there’s meth out there. I know it’s easy to get and that’s a staggering problem. You’ve got to look at how big the problem is before you can tackle it.’’
Cr Steve Bielski had recently visited the far north of the North Island, where he saw public talks on the ‘‘mind twisting’’ drug being held at schools.
Manawatu¯ Community Trust, which provides housing for Feilding pensioners, recognised the need for support programmes for meth addiction and was keen to talk about the housing shortage with other agencies.
However, the trust wasn’t funded to provide social or emergency housing, manager Kevin Petersen said.
‘‘We only really provide housing in one sector. We don’t want to commit economic suicide and be between a rock and a hard place.’’