Two more homes for homeless in Tauranga will be open for business by winter

Te Tuinga Whanau Trust social services manager Piki Russell is looking forward to helping more homeless families thanks to extra Government funding. PHOTO/JOHN BORREN

Two more houses which will provide temporary accommodation for the Bay's homeless will be up and running by winter thanks to Government funding.

Tommy Wilson, of Te Tuinga Whanau Support Services, confirmed to the Bay of Plenty Times they had secured funding from the Ministry of Social Development to open another two homes, like Whare Tauranga, in the city.

The house, at the bottom of Tauranga's CBD, provided shelter for homeless families, and since its inception mid-last year, had housed more than 40 people and helped them get into long term accommodation.

You need to give people a place to chill, regroup and work out why they got into the situation they have.

Tommy Wilson

Mr Wilson hoped to find two five or six-bedroom houses in the Greerton or Gate Pa area to accommodate more homeless families. They would be named Whare Ora, meaning house of wellbeing, and Whare Awa after Awanui Black who died late last year.

"What we have done is working, and people are listening," Mr Wilson told the Bay of Plenty Times at Whare Tauranga.

Mr Wilson said temporary accommodation in motels or throwing money at homeless people did not solve the problem.

"You need to give people a place to chill, regroup and work out why they got into the situation they have."

Mr Wilson believed they could get all homeless families off the streets, out of their cars, and off friends' and relatives' couches by 2019.

"This is about mothers and children wanting somewhere safe to stay so they can get back into long term accommodation.

"For every family we fix up, that's got to be good for the community, good for the Government but, most importantly, it's got to be good for that whanau we fix up," he said.

Mr Wilson encouraged people in the community to get back in contact with him to get involved in the next two projects which he hoped to have open by winter.

Te Tuinga Whanau Trust social services manager Piki Russell said the organisation could provide the social services to wrap around those who needed the accommodation.

Through the organisation's programmes women were able to find out who they were, she said.

Watch more: Struggling families have a place to call their own

"They have been dictated to throughout their life so they learn to reconnect back with themselves, to reclaim their world and what it should look like.

"Out of that comes the realisation that 'I am a whole lot more than what I have been' and then they are able to chase the dreams they have always had. They are their own solution, we just empower them to find that solution."

Three families are currently housed in Whare Tauranga.

One mother said she came to Whare Tauranga late last year after staying with family.

"They have their own addictions, I disagree with what they do but it is their choice," she told the Bay of Plenty Times.

"The stuff they do, I am the total opposite. I don't like violence, swearing, or drinking and drugs around my teenager.

"I wanted her to be in a safe environment. Here, I am building that bond with her again.

"My priorities are getting a house, getting a job and a car so I can be financially stable. I think that is why I came here to look for that safe environment. Not only for myself but for my teenager as well. "