Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • What the Actual
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Women and kids out with no homes to go to

Hawkes Bay Today
7 Nov, 2017 06:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

ON THE OUTER: Tania Powell with other mums and children as they contemplate eviction from ex-motel's transitional housing. PHOTO/PAUL TAYLOR

ON THE OUTER: Tania Powell with other mums and children as they contemplate eviction from ex-motel's transitional housing. PHOTO/PAUL TAYLOR

At least five women, plus several children, are being evicted from a former motel bought by the Government last year for emergency housing in Napier.

Three have been given a week's notice to vacate by today, and a protest will be held near the facilities, with housing advocates saying the situation is another consequence of a crisis caused by the loss of more than 100 houses and units demolished, removed or closed by Housing NZ.

The Ministry of Social Development, which bought the motel to provide "transitional housing" amid a widespread homeless problem throughout the country, says there are 97 transitional housing places in Napier, and it's trying to "secure" another 125.

Read more: Affording a home in Hawke's Bay gets tougher
Government spending millions on Hawke's Bay emergency housing

While ministry deputy chief executive housing Scott Gallacher said the MSD is aware that the National Collective of Independent Women's Refuges, running the accommodation and "operating as Triple S", has asked a small number of families to leave the facilities "as their behaviour has put other families at risk," the women say conditions of the tenancy treat them "like criminals" and make the facilities "like Colditz".

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The women are not Women's Refuge referrals, but say that because of a shortage of housing in Hawke's Bay they had no option to accept restrictive conditions so they had somewhere to live.

Conditions include being allowed visitors only between 9am and 3pm, but Tania Powell has also been told she is out for a strongly-denied breach of conditions prohibiting use of illicit drugs or alcohol on site or being on-site intoxicated.

"I hate alcohol," she said as she decided to speak publicly on the issue, saying she believed claims of intoxication were based on CCTV images - "the cameras are everywhere" - of her returning at night.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I walk with a limp," she says.

The women have also been told they've breached conditions by not showing "weekly evidence of house applications", but Nina Rewi says the women don't choose to live where they have been living and are constantly looking for homes - all in the same small pool of housing.

"These are our homes, we have nothing else," said Ms Rewi.

Mr Gallacher said the ministry's "purchasing strategy" sets out how and where it will deliver social housing places over the next four years.

"It shows that we are looking to secure an additional 125 income-related rent-subsidised places in Napier," he said.

"We are working with a range of other agencies, including Housing New Zealand, to increase housing supply within Hawke's Bay."

Triple S began accepting referrals in late July, with tenants receiving wraparound services to address issues related to their homelessness, Mr Gallacher said.

Occupancy agreements set out what was expected from tenants and the provider, to ensure the safety of all families in the facility, he said.

Collective of Independent Women's Refuges manager Julie Hart said Triple S hosts up to 12 families.

"When we were designing our service we looked at what our objectives were, hence the name Triple S; Safe, Secure, Short-term accommodation for women and children affected by homelessness," she said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"We looked at the vulnerability of children so the rules are around restricted visitor hours; that we are a drug and alcohol free site; no criminal activities and other common courtesies.

"A family is only ever moved on if we have, after repeated efforts, no success in getting them to adhere to the rules and that the ones that are being breeched are impacting on other families or whanau."

Patoka man Cliff Rogers became aware of the women's plight and says that as a human right everyone has a right to a roof over their head and a warm, liveable home.

None of the women has drugs or violence convictions, and in some cases conditions have interfered with fathers legitimate rights to visit their children, because they can't visit them outside of school hours, they say.

"These people have done nothing wrong," Mr Rogers said.

"They are simply people who are struggling to get along, and there is a shortage of housing in Napier, but they are being treated like criminals. You can't just lock them up in a cage."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

He said there'd been no movement in attempts to get some leeway, despite it appearing there are several units in the complex.

The women have meetings with the Salvation Army in the hope some accommodation may become available.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Property

Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

Two more Hawke’s Bay farms sold to overseas buyers for forestry

04 May 06:00 PM
Business

House prices down in most regions in year to March

14 Apr 10:09 PM
Premium
Business

$135m distributed last year by iwi to members

27 Mar 11:00 PM

The Hire A Hubby hero turning handyman stereotypes on their head

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Property

Premium
Two more Hawke’s Bay farms sold to overseas buyers for forestry

Two more Hawke’s Bay farms sold to overseas buyers for forestry

04 May 06:00 PM

Three CHB farms have sold in quick succession to overseas buyers for forestry conversion.

House prices down in most regions in year to March

House prices down in most regions in year to March

14 Apr 10:09 PM
Premium
$135m distributed last year by iwi to members

$135m distributed last year by iwi to members

27 Mar 11:00 PM
Daughter ‘slightly horrified’ after mum buys ex-brothel

Daughter ‘slightly horrified’ after mum buys ex-brothel

27 Mar 05:45 AM
Gold demand soars amid global turmoil
sponsored

Gold demand soars amid global turmoil

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP