Kuhu Mai is a wraparound service for Hawke’s Bay’s unhoused community run in collaboration with Hastings District Council, Hastings Church and Anglican Care Waiapu.
Kuhu Mai founder Pastor Warren Heke said the news of Smith’s death was brutal and heartbreaking for the community.
“He found a community amongst us,” Heke said.
“He was one of our family.”
Heke said the Kuhu Mai community held a minute’s silence to remember Smith on the evening of his death.
“He had a seat at the table, and he sat at the same table with the same group of friends that he’d made, and they would eat dinner together and talk,” Heke said.
“Then, at his table, his friends sat and they kept his chair empty.
“That was a pretty moving little moment.”
Heke said the chair is still being left empty in honour of Smith’s memory.
Kuhu Mai peer support lead David Warren knew Smith for a few years and said he would remember him most for his kindness.
“A wonderful example of this was at the beginning of winter, he came across another whānau pounamu [in this case, a homeless man] at Cornwall Park on his morning walk – it was cold and there was a frost,” Warren said.
“Marc went home and packed a bag with a jacket, beanie and gloves, thermals and a sleeping bag and asked me to take it to a man at the cricket pavilion.
“I asked why he couldn’t deliver it himself and in a very Marc Smith way, he said, ‘that’s your job, David’, and so I did.
“Moe mai rā Marc Smith, moe mai rā.”
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany, and New Zealand.
