Homeless need a response team

A charity for the homeless is calling for a response team to be established to help the region’s street people find shelter when the weather turns foul.

Jackie Galland runs Giving Aroha which helps to feed and shelter homeless people who live in tents or find a dry place to sleep each night. She says there are up to 15 regularly living on the streets in Nelson and a few more in Richmond which have fallen through gaps and struggle in society.

The Government announced an extra $30 million to its Homelessness Action Plan (HAP) in last week’s budget, but Jackie says it will do little to help the homeless. She says the Government funds different agencies, but volunteer groups are the only people physically checking on homeless people, feeding them and trying to find a way forward for them.

She concedes some homeless do not want to be helped and others have a long history with Government agencies that makes them wary and scared to seek help. The youngest she has seen on the streets was 10 and the oldest 84.

The eldest now is 82 and does not want accommodation. Generally, the homeless are men because she says women can couch surf easier and people take them in. The men left on the streets have often been through trauma, sexual abuse and have mental health issues which has led to addictions.

“We’ve had some very sad cases,” she says.

Several agencies cater for homeless people, but Jackie says they do not work collectively and do not know the homeless to know what they need.

Labour MP for Nelson Rachel Boyack says the police keep a regular check on homeless living on the streets and work alongside agencies if they need help.

She says the Ministry of Social Development provides emergency accommodation in motels and every day it is finding a place for people who need somewhere to sleep for between rents, those escaping family violence and also homeless people.

She says during severe weather events, Civil Defence and the police work closely together and emergency centres are available for anyone who needs shelter.

Jackie says it has not worked well for homeless on the streets though which is why she is calling for a response team that monitors them and is there for them when they need help.

“We have a bond with the streeties that agencies don’t have because we’re out there and we’re reliable. I get hugs from everybody.”

Emergency housing is available in motels through Housing First, but she says eligibility bizarrely requires people to be homeless for a year without an accommodation supplement. She says it is one of the reasons that many people are still living on the streets.

She says some of the places where homeless are directed can be worse than living on the streets because of drugs and violence and many of the homeless choose to stay away from them.

Giving Aroha buys tents for some of the homeless, but she says councils remove them if they are discovered and that leaves them without shelter and they have to find somewhere else that is dry.

During the August flood last year, a temporary shelter was set up at the Unite Church in Nelson under Giving Aroha’s guidance which sheltered 24 people for six weeks and Jackie says it worked well.

The charity spent $3,500 through the six weeks without Government funding and she suggests charities should be getting some of the funding because they are the ones working with the homeless.

When heavy rain drenched the region at the beginning of May, the church was opened again as a shelter but only at 8pm, which she says is too late.

“The streeties are all tucked up for the night at that time. I took a guy up at 8pm and it wasn’t open, so I took him to the holiday park. They opened the church for two nights, shut it for three nights and opened it for a night.

“We need a response team so we have something open for them and they know it’s open.”

Nelson City Council group manager community services Andrew White says council staff worked with Unite Church to provide emergency shelter on three nights through the May storm, but he says the council is not resourced to operate a full-time shelter which is a complex specialist role.

It does work to support the immediate needs of those experiencing homelessness though, as well as working on addressing some of the larger issues that cause homelessness, such as housing affordability. It also provides ongoing support to a range of community groups working with the homeless community.

“There are multiple factors that can contribute to a person being homeless that often require the input of experts in various fields; no one organisation or agency can address all these factors alone. “

Jackie says the different agencies working with the homeless do not talk to each other and the homeless are often left to charities. She also acknowledges that she butts heads with different agencies when she demands more for homeless people.

“It’s such a mucked-up system because we have all these agencies and not one of them has a response team.”

“I’d like to see Government agencies and churches not funded and community groups like ours listened to and funded because we need people on the ground and not in offices.”

Ideally, she says an area with caravans or cabins is needed as a shelter for homeless people when they need it, managed by those who know them and give them what they need.

The Male Room manager Louis Chapman agrees the homeless on the street need more help. The Male Room supplies food and day shelter between 8am and 4pm five days a week, as well as washing facilities. But he says the homeless need somewhere to go at night when they need shelter.

There was a night shelter that closed about a year ago and since then he says the homeless have nowhere to go and cannot get emergency housing due to the 12-month homelessness requirement.

“It’s an incredibly broken system. Often the people just want somewhere to put their tent that is safe. That would be a win for them.

“It’s very grounding when I wake up whinging about my cold old house – at least I have a cold old house.”

Tasman District Council’s services do not extend to direct welfare for the homeless, though communications officer Tim O’Connell says it acknowledges there are those in the community struggling to find suitable and stable accommodation.

The council has 101 single-level units in its social housing portfolio and has a consistently high waiting list for them. It also liases with various programmes and agencies.

During severe weather events where a state of emergency are declared, it works within the Nelson-Tasman Civil Defence Emergency Management set-up which has a welfare team ensuring that anyone needing assistance can be addressed.