Nightshelter prepares to open

Organisers of a city nightshelter set to accommodate up to 20 homeless people in Tauranga are preparing to open the doors in coming weeks.

Tauranga Moana Nightshelter Trust secretary Mike Mills is looking forward to opening the doors of city nightshelter for the city's homeless.

The Tauranga Moana Nightshelter Trust took ownership of the former Youth Hostel Association buildings in lower Elizabeth St on July 11 after years of discussion and fruitless searches for a suitable site.

Earlier this year Tauranga City Council approved plans to convert the YHA premises into a nightshelter for the city's homeless.

Tauranga Moana Nightshelter Trust secretary Mike Mills says an opening date is yet to be finalised, but it's an exciting time for the trust as they near their vision becoming reality.

Trustees are currently interviewing potential candidates for various roles, including a part-time office manager, two ‘house parents', an overnight supervisor, and part-funding a full-time social worker.

'We are really looking at building a team of people and we are interviewing some folk at this stage for these roles. In fact, I have probably had more offers of help than I know what to do with,” says Mike.

'There are groups offering to come in and help with working bees, voluntary help, and people applying for the various positions. The response has been pretty positive.”

Next week the trust meets with Work and Income NZ about accommodation assistance for clients, but Mike says the trust is also reliant on donations and fundraising to cover operating costs.

'Because we have bought it fully-equipped we don't have to provide anything additional to commence operations.

'The only thing we would potentially spend money on is safety and security. Prior to opening we will do a safety and security audit.”

Once open the building will easily accommodate up to 20 men, with the former hostel holding up to 40 backpackers.

'Council have given us an upper limit of 20; we imagined something in the 15 to 20 range any way, so we're comfortable with 20. They will swim in the building; it's got capacity for 40 as a youth hostel.

'So we will be drastically reducing the number of people in bedrooms to improve privacy and comfort,” says Mike.

In April council approved the release of $118,000, set aside from the Stewart Trust Fund in 2009, for the night shelter.

Council is providing the land for a peppercorn rental of $1 a year, and the nightshelter trust is liable for the property's rates.

'The client base is quite well-known to our trustees, so we are just taking care to get the right people into the right [staffing] positions.

'Once we have done that we will be looking to open our doors fairly soon.”

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3 comments

Gender

Posted on 27-07-2014 09:55 | By Raewyn

I know there is a homeless Woman in Tauranga area, are the doors open to females as well as males?


A little bit more

Posted on 27-07-2014 10:41 | By barb71

This is a start but having nowhere to sleep requires more help. So heres my thought. We are rapidly moving closer to Christmas. In November, Trustpower issue their rebate cheques. In 2012, 56,000 people received a minimum $385.00 rebate. That amount climbed to an estimated 57,000 people receiving a minimum $400.00 rebate last year. If every person that received a rebate would be generous enough to donate $100 from it and put it towards housing options for the homeless, the total raised would be $5,700,000. So out of curiosity - how many people would be prepared to donate?


@barb71

Posted on 28-07-2014 05:27 | By Sambo Returns

not this cowboy...... and just as an aside, 15 x homeless with 5x full time/part time staff, better odds than an overcrowded hospital, a great "feel good" factor for those involved, but I will debate rigorously what it will actually achieve, also do the "homeless" actually pay to use this facility?, if that is the case the occupancy will drop too 75%.


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