A miniature dog sits at her feet as her small vehicle is parked under a tree.
She finds it hard to put into words how it came to this.
Looking down at her “baby”, who has been her constant companion for eight years, she says he has probably hindered her chances of getting a home, but she cannot bear to live without him.
“He is the only reason I’ve gotten through, really,” she tells me.
“You just have to take it one day at a time - so, as long as we are dry and warm. It’s been very hard, but when you don’t have any other choice, you have got to make it work.”
Despite her best efforts to secure accommodation, including emergency housing, she was left with no options. She used to work seasonally, but had to give up her job to focus on her wellbeing.
For the past 18 months, this 52-year-old woman, who went through heart failure and also suffers from other health conditions, has been living in her car in Tauranga. The Bay of Plenty Times has chosen not to name her for safety reasons. She says her descent into homelessness began when her landlord sold the rental she was in and she struggled to find another rental.
For now, she is living in the car - and it’s meant she has faced some terrifying situations.
“I have noticed a lot of people on P around the place, so that is pretty scary when you’re a female in your car by yourself. In some places, you’ve got peeping Toms and predators. I’ve been fined two nights in a row, and had security guards shining spotlights through every window in my car.
“Things can get a bit dodgy. but then you move on.”
She cooks in her car, does her washing at a laundromat, and showers at the handful of free facilities in Tauranga.
Her back car seat is folded down to make a bed, which she jokingly said her dog took over most nights.
But that was also becoming a problem, because her car is not running properly and she cannot afford to get it fixed - let alone be without it for the night and be forced onto the streets.
All she wants for Christmas is to live in a home again.
‘It’s just a little plaster on a huge gaping wound that is going to need social surgery’
Te Tuinga Whānau Support Services Trust social worker Scotty Harvey estimates there are about 200 people, including families, living in cars, vans or house-trucks. Some are sleeping under bridges, on reserves or in tents.
The organisation is dealing with about 20 families a week that are homeless, and it cannot help them all. The trust is one of the largest providers of emergency accommodation, including motels and transitional housing in Tauranga, and for the first time, it did not have a single bed available.
At the end of last year, Harvey met a young mother-of-three with nowhere to live who was in tears.
“She was crying. I had to say, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t do anything’. We talk about awhi and that sort of thing, but now there are too many of them [homeless people].”
The situation is “heart-breaking”, and he hears similar stories daily, which is taking a toll on staff who cannot fix their problems.
A mum of six was living in her car, and Harvey says some are being told to move on and getting fined by council-contracted security guards.
Harvey, who watches over some of the homeless, said they come from all walks of life.
This includes parents with children, those with jobs who cannot find a place to rent and the rough sleepers who had been on the streets for years.
“The spectrum is wide, and 64 per cent are Maori.”
Te Tuinga Whānau Support Services Trust chief executive Tommy Wilson confirms “there is no room at the inn”.
He says its services are stretched to breaking point, and he fears the city is facing an influx of people with nowhere to live.
“We are the front line and there is nothing behind us. Motels have people queuing up...”
He says people are “desperate”, and when they have nothing to lose, “they have to commit crime, and then people are outraged because we have street-loads of homeless people walking around and committing crimes. They don’t care, because at least if they go to jail, they get a kai”.
Wilson commends services providing support, such as food, but questions how people are going to cook a can of food when they do not have a stove.
“That is not going to solve the problem. And, it’s great to feel good about giving, but it’s just a little plaster on a huge gaping wound that is going to need social surgery.”
Tauranga, he says, is in crisis with the homeless situation, and he wants people more fortunate to think about how they can help.
“Usually, Te Tuinga has been able to work its magic because of the massive connections we have got with the community kingpins, but they are all tapped out.”
There are 30,000 retired people in Tauranga, and Wilson hopes some of these people could hold a family’s hand.
“We haven’t got a hundred social workers, but what we have got is some good people in Tauranga. They could hold these families’ hands and support them by just being alongside them until we can stem the flow.”
‘There absolutely is a continuing housing and homeless crisis’
Takitimu House operations manager Annamarie Angus says the organisation is aware of people living in cars and sleeping rough.
It has recorded a significant increase in daily telephone calls from people asking for help and an increase in the number of referrals to available beds at the men’s shelter.
Capacity is consistently at more than 90 per cent, and it had 20 beds available.
“There absolutely is a continuing housing and homeless crisis in the Bay of Plenty. There are a myriad of reasons for people to become homeless in the first instance - disconnection, colonisation, trauma, for example.”
She says sometimes it is not financially viable for many clients to even consider private tenancy.
“Takitimu House absolutely focuses on setting our clients up to succeed. Secondary to this, but as importantly, we treasure our relationships with local landlords. It would be negligent of our service to sign up our clients into tenancies that are clearly not affordable, and therefore not sustainable.”
Homelessness has a catastrophic effect on people’s mental, emotional and physical wellbeing, she says.
“I have worked in social services for many years, more recently with Takitimu House for the past eight-and-a-half years. The number of deaths we have recorded of men who have been through our service, often in their 50s and 60s, is clearly a result of long-term poverty and homelessness.
“Once homeless, it is very difficult to exit the street. People move into survival mode and hide on the peripheries of our society. People lose hope and mana, and once this is lost, the damage on one’s mental and physical wellbeing is significant and enduring.”
A Salvation Army spokesman says there is a homeless crisis in Tauranga, based on what the organisation is seeing.
“Cases of homelessness are on the increase. We have people in the community walking through our doors every week in desperate situations and at breaking point.”
The Salvation Army Tauranga was part of the Kāinga Tupu Homelessness Provider network, which meets regularly about the Kāinga Tupu Action Plan to better understand homelessness in the Western Bay of Plenty. Led by the Tauranga City Council and Western Bay of Plenty District Council, the plan focuses on both immediate short-term responses and long-term strategies to combat homelessness in the Western Bay of Plenty.
“From what we are hearing and seeing, homeless people may be sleeping rough, in emergency accommodation, or with whānau/friends, which can result in overcrowding of accommodation.”
The Salvation Army manages 30 transitional houses in Tauranga which are fully tenanted.
“There is no single factor that leads a whānau or individual on the path to homelessness. The difficulty of accessing affordable rentals and the increase in the cost of living are two key factors contributing to homelessness, along with one-off events such as redundancy, eviction or illness. Other factors could include past debts, addictions, mental health issues, lack of support, poverty, and family/culture disconnection.”
Homelessness impacts people’s mental health and wellbeing.
“It impacts on parents who cannot provide a safe place for their children, and for tamariki, being homeless can affect their ability to access education, health providers, and social support services.”
Rental costs in Tauranga were the second-highest in New Zealand, he said.
MSD: Fewer households in emergency housing
Ministry of Social Development Bay of Plenty regional commissioner Mike Bryant says fewer people in Tauranga need emergency housing support.
Its figures show the number of households in emergency housing fell from 156 to 141 at the end of the September quarter, and at the end of the March quarter, that figure also dropped. The number of emergency housing special needs grants given out in Tauranga City also fell from 1116 in the March quarter to 1053 in the September quarter.
“This mirrors the trend we’ve seen nationally of the number of people in emergency housing falling every month over the past year.”
The cost of emergency housing was set by the accommodation supplier, based on the market rate for immediately available motel rooms. He said it was influenced by a range of factors, including supply and demand, the size of the household in need, and the region where emergency accommodation is required.
“Our regional housing team works closely with whānau, accommodation suppliers, and community partners to manage our use of motels and support people in their search for a suitable place to live. We will continue to work with other government agencies, councils, iwi and community groups to help people find suitable long-term accommodation.”
A Ministry of Housing and Urban Development spokeswoman says Tauranga has some of the most unaffordable housing in New Zealand, with house prices going up 75 per cent over five years, and that it is a focus area because of this.
While considerable progress has been made, it will take several years until there are sufficient new homes to meet the housing needs of the region, due to many years of under-investment in infrastructure and housing.
“Emergency and transitional housing will continue to provide much-needed support for whānau and families.”
There have been recent changes to the district plan in Tauranga to enable intensification and provide opportunities to build more public housing.
Data from the Housing Register reveals there is a waiting list of 807 in Tauranga District/City in the quarter to September, compared to 825 in the March quarter and 738 in the September quarter last year.
The Public Housing Plan 2021-2024 shows there are 3457 places available in June this year in the Bay of Plenty, up from 3,088 in June 2020. By June 2024, it hoped to grow the portfolio by another 532 houses.
Figures from Trade Me show the median weekly rent in the Tauranga region in November was $640 - up seven per cent when compared with the same month last year.
Rough sleeping, begging and homelessness not criminal offences
Tauranga City Council regulation monitoring team leader Stuart Goodman says that from January 1 to December 16, the council received 276 complaints about homelessness.
The complaints vary in nature and location, and most have been about people sleeping rough in council reserves.
“Some complaints are about the presence of homeless [people] in public places, but most relate to antisocial behaviour. These matters are often referred to the NZ Police as the enforcement agency for those offences.
“Our approach is not to move people on due to the risks associated with driving tired or under the influence.”
The council does not use the Freedom Camping Act to manage homelessness.
Infringements issued under the Freedom Camping Act and Freedom Camping Bylaw are for $200.
He says a small number of people experiencing homelessness may have received freedom camping infringements before it was aware of their situation.
“Our officers have an excellent rapport with people experiencing homelessness within our community, and our purpose is to connect these people with social support agencies.”
A proposal to use carpark facilities in the past for the homeless has been deemed an inappropriate solution due to safety concerns.
When asked what the council was doing about homelessness, Goodman provided an email link to Kāinga Tupu – Tackling Homelessness through Collaboration. The task force is made up of 14 organisations, including the council, and its mission is: “All residents have the right to housing that is warm, safe, habitable, and affordable”.
Western Bay of Plenty Police area commander Inspector Clifford Paxton says rough sleeping, begging and homelessness are not criminal offences.
But, police may attend matters involving people sleeping in their vehicles if they feel unsafe or their behaviour is making others feel unsafe, and in circumstances where council bylaws may be being breached or in situations where there are complaints involving public disorder or antisocial behaviour.
“Police’s role is to keep everyone in our community safe, regardless of their circumstances, and we want to ensure people are free to go about their daily lives without obstruction or feeling unsafe. Many of those sleeping in vehicles have a wide range of welfare issues, and police seek to use alternative resolutions and referrals to partner agencies to assist with specialist help.”
Paxton urges anyone who is in a situation where they feel unsafe or believe there is a risk to a person’s safety to call 111 immediately.
“Police are continuing to work alongside and have meetings with our partner agencies to better understand the issues and to find long-term solutions for these complex social issues.”