Brook said there needed to be a safe place for Tauranga's homeless to go and they had been eyeing up a building at the bottom of Elizabeth St or The Cargo Shed as options.
Ideally, it would be a place for people to retreat, take a shower, have a cup of tea or some food, wash their clothes or use a computer to job search during the day.
"There are people living in the streets, caravans, tents, couch surfing, staying at their mates' place - they are all homeless and all of them can benefit from a place to go in the day."
Brook also hoped to partner with other social enterprises to help the homeless find jobs.
Asked about the hub idea, Tauranga mayor Tenby Powell said he had empathy and understanding for both the CBD retailers and the growing homeless population.
Powell said that was why the mayoral task force was formed with Western Bay mayor Garry Webber for city leaders to work on the issue with other agencies, many of whom he said were working in "isolated silos".
"We need to bring everybody together," he said.
Powell said the two new acute mental health facilities for Tauranga and Whakatāne announced as part of a $300 million Government investment this week couldn't have come soon enough.
"We are desperate to have facilities of this sort," he said.
Powell said he worried about the city's "working poor" and said Tauranga, which had been ranked the world's fifth least affordable city, needed to attract businesses that will enable people to earn higher wages and salaries.
"This moniker $10 Tauranga has got to go."
Te Tuinga Whānau Support Services Trust executive director Tommy Wilson believed the ban had been successful in that it raised awareness.
But he said mental health and addiction services needed to be made available.
"We haven't got the expertise to put the broken pieces back together of these people," he said.
Wilson believed there were only about 30 people living homeless in Tauranga but about 1000 people living in poverty. However, he said a wellness hub should not be a priority on the city's list.
"We have some really kind people but we need to direct the kindness in a format of empathy not sympathy," he said. "We need to be more strategic with our kindness and that is with empathy."
Begging ban's long and winding road
Tauranga City Council voted 6-5 to ban begging and rough sleeping within 5m of public entrances to retail or hospitality premises in the Tauranga City, Greerton and Mount Maunganui CBDs on November 20, 2018.
The decision was met with a wave of support from retailers, criticism from homeless advocates and an application for judicial review from Tauranga Housing Advocacy Trust, which was concerned the bylaw was a breach of the New Zealand Bill of Rights.
On November 19 last year, the Policy Committee approved the proposal to revoke the begging and rough sleeping provisions in the Street Use and Public Places Bylaw 2018 for community consultation.
Public submissions were sought on the proposal from November 20 to December 20, 2019 - 372 submissions were received.
