The pastor, the prisoners and the pork bones
A retired pastor and his wife who provide housing for recently released prisoners have been accused of over-charging for overcrowded accommodation.
Manu Pohio and his wife Cecily have hit back at their critics, describing them as ‘‘problem’’ tenants who just want to live rentfree.
The couple have run up to six homes across Rotorua under the Korowai House banner, providing furnished rooms, garages and caravans to ex-cons and others with nowhere else to go.
The couple runs a trust, Abraham Marae International, which rents private properties and sublets them, the profits used to pay Pastor Manu a small manager’s wage and expenses.
Cecily Pohio describes her husband as a ‘‘father figure’’ to the tenants, who come to him ‘‘oppressed and defeated’’.
‘‘If they don’t want don’t have to stay.’’
But some former tenants claim the $180 weekly rent, including power – paid out of their benefit directly by Work and Income NZ – left them as little as $20 and they were forced to eat at soup kitchens.
They say the ‘‘food assistance’’ that was promised was usually a pot of pork bone soup, which didn’t last the week.
The former tenants also allege overcrowding, with two to a room, and say women were living in the homes when it was supposed to be a service for men.
One former tenant claims he was assaulted by another resident but the couple say he had been using drugs and causing trouble.
They deny people were sharing rooms, saying if that happened it was done without their knowledge.
They say tenants are provided with donated food such as a large sack of potatoes, chicken frames, to pay, they pork bones, tea and biscuits, as well as toiletries and washing powder weekly, with extras at Christmas. Manu and Cecily Pohio had run several houses but are down to one because ‘‘it got too much’’.
The couple confirmed a woman and her teenage daughters were living in the home, but said they would be moving soon and there If they don’t want to pay, they don’t have to stay. were no former the moment.
The accommodation had originally been for men but ‘‘we changed the rules because of the women who were desperate’’.
There are currently eight people living at the property – four in the four-bedroom house, including the woman and her teenage children, two in a garage and two in caravans. The woman, a beneficiary, said she was on a Housing NZ waiting list.
One former tenant was homeless prisoners there at until he got a room at a Korowai House, where he stayed for six months. ‘‘[The rent] was quite steep but I had no other place to go. Pastor Manu was the only one willing to take me at the time.’’
A social worker, who asked not to be identified, said he had spoken to about six former Korowai House tenants who were unhappy at overcrowding and the $180 rent.
‘‘That’s really high for a room. Most of their benefit went to accommodation and they had to pay food on top of that with 10 or 20 bucks for a week. They were forced to go to soup kitchens because they had nothing left.’’ The trust’s financial accounts for 2015 show it paid $36,438 on rent and had rental income of $77,442.
Costs included $15,600 for the pastor’s wages, mobile phone and vehicle expenses, $10,000 for power, and $4000 for maintenance.
Pastor Manu said he was providing more than just accommodation. The tenants’ spiritual needs were ‘‘key for me. It’s my job to give them worth and value.’’
He said the property owner was ‘‘happy to support us. If we’re making money who cares? You have to treat it like a business.’’
There would always be people ‘‘who want to create a problem’’.
By email, Cecily Pohio said most of the tenants were trying to improve their lives but some had become homeless through their own actions. Many were drug and alcohol dependent, physically ill and mentally unstable.
‘‘Manu is patient to the point that even if they storm off leaving a mess and a debt, swearing and cursing at him that he’s money hungry and a rip off, when they come back, tail between their legs and full of apology, he gives them another chance,’’ she said.
‘‘He has sat in court to show the judge that someone cares. What he has done for hundreds of people far outweighs the half dozen who are disgruntled.’’
Cecily Pohio said they couldn’t maintain the service if they charged less.
Greg Halse, administrator of Rotorua Prisoners’ Aid and Rehabilitation Society, said the society had referred people to Korowai House.
‘‘He [Pastor Manu] has been very accommodating. . . he’s usually been able to find them somewhere. None of our released prisoners have come back to us and [complained].’’
Halse said it was ‘‘extremely tough’’ to find accommodation for such people and when they declared their criminal convictions to landlords it didn’t help.
‘‘In Rotorua there’s not much in the way of rental accommodation and we don’t have emergency night shelter accommodation,’’ he said.
Penny Rounthwaite, the Ministry of Social Development’s national commissioner, said Korowai House was not a contracted emergency housing provider.
It was up to beneficiaries to satisfy themselves that accommodation was suitable as the ministry was not responsible for vetting.
Rounthwaite said the ministry had met with other boarding houses in Rotorua and the rent charged by Korowai was similar.
‘‘Occasionally we have had clients tell us they think the rent at Korowai House is too expensive.
‘‘In these cases we talk with the client about their options.
‘‘This can include looking for private rentals or other temporary housing, although this may not always be a more affordable or easily accessible option.’’