Tauranga's Neil Pedersen says he has met many other homeless seniors since he first became homeless. Photo / George Novak
"We're God's waiting room, isn't this where everyone comes to retire?"
Tommy Wilson doesn't beat around the bush.
"[Tauranga] needs more houses. We've run out," the Te Tuinga Whānau Support Services Trust manager says.
He's one of a number of social agency operators in Tauranga seeing a rapidly increasing number of homeless elderly.
Unsustainable rental prices, methamphetamine, elder abuse, overcrowded houses, lack of accessible housing and whānau unable to care for an elderly family member are adding to the issue, they say.
Four elderly men were placed in transitional housing by the trust last week, Wilson said.
The trend of seniors needing emergency housing was rising at pace and Wilson feared this would become the norm.
"When you can't put elderly into a warm dry house, it's a crisis."
Wilson believed several factors played into this and said while there were plenty of retirement homes in the city, there was little in terms of affordable or emergency housing for elderly.
"What are we going to do with our old people when they can't afford to pay their rent?"
The latest Trade Me Rental Price Index showed the median weekly rent in the Bay of Plenty was $520.
Superannuation is $847.66 a fortnight for someone who lives alone or with a dependent child, $782.44 for those who live with someone who is not a dependent child, and $652.04 for each person in a couple.
Wilson said job losses created by the pandemic had a ripple effect with households with grandparents in them needing to downsize.
The methamphetamine epidemic was impacting elderly homelessness when relatives took money or stole from their elderly family members, he said.
"When they can't pay their dealer ... they go where they can get the money, and grandparents don't offer much resistance ... That's happening a lot."
Social worker Sai Watson Crooks said there were "a lot of single men, 65 and over", moving into the RSA, with an 80-year-old moving last week as a result of elder abuse which she said was common. The trust signed a contract with the Returned & Services Association in April, allowing it access to the 22 rooms at its motel which transformed into a one-stop-shop where the city's most vulnerable people can gain access to doctors, social workers and a safe place to sleep.
Crooks had also noticed people who had either had a "rough upbringing" or chosen the gang life in their younger years leaving their social housing due to relatives breaching their tenancies by bringing meth into the house.
Tauranga Moana Takitimu House men's shelter manager Annamarie Angus said they had recently begun accessing rest home care for men they needed to house.
"This is relatively new for us."
Seniors needing housing was usually a result of being unable to afford rent alone after a partner died, lack of accessible housing, whānau struggling to cope with the older person, and overcrowding.
"There isn't enough affordable elder housing, private landlords charge rents that only working families or individuals can afford.
"At times it will be the specific access requirements for an older person, such as flat entry, accessible bathrooms, proximity to services, GPs."
The older generation became dependent on whānau who were unable to cope and then became homeless, she said.
There was "absolutely not enough support, they are hidden and don't ask for help".
Angus knew of a man in his late 70s who spent $380 per week on rent, which was "amazingly cheap", but the landlord was currently notifying the tenants that the rents would be reassessed at market rate.
"He did have a small inheritance however that is drying up fast. I have no idea where he will go immediately upon not having enough money to pay the rent anymore, which isn't far away."
While he was currently housed, there was no support to prepare him for the next step and Angus doubted there was affordable housing waiting for him.
"He is elderly and won't ask for help, preferring to retain a level of dignity as he sees it."
Street Kai organiser Tracey Carlton has noticed a similar and "very concerning" trend of more mature women from all cultural backgrounds ending up homeless.
Tauranga gerontologist Carole Gordon said there was "a lot of silence" around the issue of homelessness in older people.
"Housing poverty and housing stress amongst elderly people is very hidden. They don't speak out amongst themselves about it."
It has been a year from hell for Tauranga's Neil Pedersen.
The 64-year-old is in transitional housing now but spent weeks homeless and living out of his car.
He was asked to leave his rental and ended up living in his car for two weeks, unable to find a house in time.
He ended up in Tauranga Hospital with ongoing heart issues and had suffered three heart attacks in the past.
He was put into a rest home which he left of own accord, and lived out of his car again for three weeks.
"I didn't really know where to go for help. I was truly stuck in limbo."
He was not sure how to have things like a shave and shower which helped him feel normal.
"I didn't want to speak to anyone about it," he said as he described the shame, wiping a tear from his eye before it could run down his cheek.
He had parked up under a tree outside the RSA which had, unknown to him, become a wraparound service for people needing emergency housing.
The next day, he was approached by one of the staff who took him in immediately and he lived there for three months before he was placed in a transitional house which Tē Tuinga Whānau Support Services Trust had found for him.
Up until that point, "life was good".
Finding a rental was difficult as young families tended to be favoured as masses applied for one property, he said. The most he had seen was a rental in Katikati which had around 40 people turned away.
His voice trembled as a spoke of the unseen homelessness among seniors.
"I've met so many, they're in their vans ... older than me."
Being in a transitional house now meant he was able to relax while he continued his search for more permanent accommodation.
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