Funding proposed to help engagement with Pasifika
Nelson's council has made a $20,000 show of goodwill towards the city's Pasifika community.
During its last meeting of 2023, Nelson City Council agreed to consult on allocating the funds for council staff to engage with the Pasifika community on its priority projects.
Nelson Tasman Pasifika Community Trust general manager Robert Blake said the proposal was “really positive” and “a step in the right direction” for local Pasifika people.
“It’s quite a wide scope, so that could help with housing, a hub, just about anything, and I know that comes with wider community benefits.”
A survey of Nelson and Tasman Pasifika last year revealed that housing and health were the largest issues facing the community.
“The things that our Pacific population find hard is, obviously, long wait times at GP practices … we find that the determinants of health flow on to education and everything else,” Blake said.
“We get a lot of people come into Nelson, moving in with families, and then they’ve moved here and they’re looking for housing. The rental market here is pretty tight.”
The trust currentlyruns successful health clinics, with the help of primary healthcare providers, and is also embarking on a project that would see it oversee several affordable rentals to provide Pasifika a platform to prepare and save for a first home.
The council funding could allow it to engage with the trust further on these issues, or instead be directed to support plans for a new Pasifika community hub.
“Often our population can segregate themselves, because we don’t have one place, other than our churches, that we can all congregate in,” Blake said.
The funding isn’t earmarked only for engagement with the trust but is intended to contribute to the priorities of the city’s wider Pasifika population.
Pasifika Nelson City councillor Matty Anderson proposed the funding during the council’s last meeting of 2023.
His proposal was born from the positive pre-engagement meetings the council had had with Nelson’s Pasifika ahead of consulting on the draft Long Term Plan 2024-34.
Anderson said Pasifika had “quite rightly” been historically disconnected from local government processes. He hoped that this proposal would deliver a positive result and demonstrate the council’s support for local Pasifika. “It would be just a start of a beautiful relationship.”