Houses for 150 homeless
Vacant Defence Force houses in Papakura to help growing problem
Ahousing project in South Auckland is set to provide temporary accommodation for over 150 homeless people. The arrangement between the Salvation Army, the Ministry of Social Development and Papakura Marae will see twenty-eight vacant NZ Defence Force houses turned into accommodation for homeless families.
The houses have space for up to 154 people and will be for people on the ministry’s Housing Register.
Those granted temporary accommodation will be provided a place to stay for 12 weeks, but given support to address issues they may be facing. Tenants will arrive next week.
The Defence homes on Russell Ave, the lower end of Arimu Rd and Dittmar Pl in Papakura were offered to the MSD on a six month lease.
Salvation Army Lieutenant Colonel Lynette Hutson said the project provides a fantastic opportunity to address homelessness in an area of high need.
“This is a particularly nice way of using existing housing but repurposing it to meet the need, and in the right area of the city,” she said.
“It’s a transitional process but it means that people are safe and off the street – and that their desperation is taken away.”
Hutson said the MSD will be providing funding and referring people from its register.
“People who are homeless, or whose accommodation has gone pear-shaped and for so many reasons find themselves without accommodation, are able to apply to the MSD for public housing.
“The MSD then look to find ways of getting those people into housing, so this forms part of the continuum of getting people to a safe transitional home.
“The Housing Register has become extremely long, longer than we have ever seen before, and it now involves families as well as singles, and people from all ranges of society,” she said.
As at June 30, 2018, there were 8704 applications on the Housing Register, an increase of 62.6 per cent compared to the same time last year.
Hutson said people will be chosen through a flexible process that takes into account their level of need and safety.
The houses, which are 3-4 bedrooms and fully-furnished, can cater for family units as well as groups of people in flatting type situations.
“The tenants are required to make a contribution towards the rental, but it’s designed to be a fair and reasonable contribution – not to cripple them financially,” Hutson said.
Along with temporary accommodation, a team of people will be working to get the tenants into their own long-term accommodation.
“It wouldn’t work if we didn’t intentionally work with people to get them into permanent accommodation,” Hutson said.
Staff and local iwi will also work with the tenants to link them with other services such as mental health and addiction services.
“If you don’t address that then you are not breaking the cycle,” she said.
Papakura marae CEO Tony Kake said his staff were honoured to work alongside the Salvation Army to address homelessness in the area.
“A lot of our whanau are sleeping in cars and sleeping rough so we would like to get them into something more permanent.”