Teenager homeless again despite leaders’ concern

HARRY, the homeless teenager whose plight was flagged by the Otago Daily Times, is still without a roof despite city leaders voicing their concerns.

Harry contacted the ODT and said he had become homeless again last Friday, after being given temporary accommodation in Mosgiel only for the previous 11 nights, with no onward plan.

He felt he ‘‘was in a loop going round and round’’ and complained that agencies had not achieved a solution for him.

‘‘I want people to stop mucking me about.

‘‘I’m getting sick of it, straight up.’’

Harry had turned 18 earlier this year and left the care of a Dunedin residential disability service.

He had tried to kill himself in a lonely motel room and after more than a month in Wakari Hospital was discharged with no place to go.

The child statement of rights requires Oranga Tamariki to provide a caregiver until the age of 21, if wanted.

Oranga Tamariki declined to comment further on Harry’s case.

Harry said he was taken to the Mosgiel temporary accommodation by social care agency Te Kaika after a meeting that included his Oranga Tamariki social worker.

He said he had asked in the meeting not to be sent to a motel again, due to fear of illness and isolation.

After the 11night stay in Mosgiel, Harry was returned to Dunedin homelessness last Friday.

Harry has since been in emergency accommodation only accessible at night.

He was invited to a meeting with Te Kaika and Oranga Tamariki this week, but it was unknown last night whether this meeting happened or has led to any progress in his case.

When asked how he felt about being bounced back to homelessness, Harry said ‘‘not very well’’. ‘‘I feel upset.

‘‘After I spent so long in Wakari, I would have thought that Oranga Tamariki, given its expertise, would have sorted a solution, but no,’’ he said.

He urgently wanted medical tests to determine any disability, somewhere decent to live that met his needs and support to help him receive more education.

He wanted to go to polytechnic.

Another teenager aged 19 — Katie (not real name) — was with Harry and has been sheltering at night in the same place as him.

She said she had no home to go to.

She had previously been in care, and said ‘‘my whole family needs help’’.

Dunedin MP Rachel Brooking said her office was talking to various agencies and she was ‘‘hopeful there will be progress and a resolution.’’

Dunedin city councillor Sophie Barker said Harry’s case could be ‘‘the tip of the iceberg’’. She felt ‘‘so let down for him’’. ‘‘With all the publicity about Harry’s case, you’d think that this vulnerable young person would have a positive outcome.’’

Cr Barker called for a joint solutionsfocused approach between agencies rather than silos.

She supported the council’s plan to tackle homelessness, which hoped to achieve functional zero — more people leaving homelessness than entering it — through a multiagency approach.

If a service to help Harry was not available in Dunedin, ‘‘then we should be looking wider geographically to find somewhere that is safe for him’’.

Te Kaika did not respond to questions.