A SECOND, larger home is set to open in central Tauranga to provide emergency accommodation for young women.
Harmony House has six bedrooms, with the potential to provide a safe home for up to 10 women and children.
The first residents, 24-year-old Jenni McNamara and her 7-old-son Jacob, were living at Haven
of Grace but moved to the new home on Friday.
Alone, pregnant with her second child, overwhelmed by bills and on the verge of being evicted, Miss McNamara came to the Haven of Grace.
"Basically I was in a house, had no money and being pregnant, really needed something to try and secure myself," she said.
She found that security at the haven and despite her circumstances when she arrived, Miss McNamara said the experience had been,"actually really awesome".
"It's amazing how many supportive people are out there," she said.
As well as providing her and her son a home, the woman who runs the haven, wishing only to be known as Vicki, has also helped her get a registration and warrant of fitness for her car so she can now drive legally.
While slightly nervous about moving to Harmony House alone, Miss McNamara said it would only be a week or two before other single mothers and young women joined her.
She said having had her son at 16 years old had resulted in strong friendships being formed between herself and some of the teenage mothers at the haven. Each of the women at both houses pays $100 a week board, some of which is used to pay the rent.
Vicki said with Tauranga Women's Refuge full at the moment, she was receiving up to two calls a day asking if the haven could house any more women. She said this time of the year was always busy for social agencies.
"Usually because of drugs and alcohol and financial pressures, there's more violence and stress," she said.
Vicki said the haven, which can accommodate seven women and children, had planned to expand, possibly in late January or early February, but it had happened sooner than expected.
She said an official opening of Harmony House would be held next year.
