Formerly homeless couple urge action on Kaitāia’s housing crisis

Hera and Lena Greaves, who have both lived on the street, are saddened by the increase in homelessness in Kaitaia. Photo / Jenny Ling

A Northland couple who survived many years sleeping on the streets are shocked and heartbroken at the increase in Kaitāia’s homelessness.

Hera and Lena Greaves recently moved to Northland after years living rough in the lower North Island and say something needs to change to address the number of homeless people in town.

They regularly see people, often elderly kuia and kaumātua, sleeping in cars, huddled in bus stops and in doorways by disused buildings.

They say they mill around town during the day and as it draws to a close, mums and their children enter public toilets for a wash and emerge in their pyjamas.

“They’re just sitting there looking hungry, but everyone turns a blind eye,” Hera said.

“We’re all humans at the end of the day.

“It breaks my heart because it shouldn’t be like that.”

“It’s never talked about,” Lena said.

“Nothing’s being done about it – the struggle is real.”

Hera, who grew up between Taipā and Kaitāia, said there was no homelessness in Kaitāia back then.

“Everybody was warm and fed.

“I came back up here with my darling and everywhere I look there are people who look like they’ve been sleeping rough, like they haven’t had a feed.

“You can see it on their faces; they’re tired of living like that.

“I feel for them; we want to take them in.”

Hera Greaves grew up in the Far North and says there was no homelessness in Kaitāia back then. Photo / Jenny Ling

The Greaves know what it’s like.

Lena was aged 12 and living in Masterton when childhood trauma drove her to a life on the streets.

She slept in people’s backyards and under parked trucks, rising at 4am before the trucks rumbled into action.

“I met a few friends [on the street]. They said sleep under trucks because it’s big and you can stretch out, and it was warm under there.

“It helped having friends because they knew where to sleep.

“We’d go into restaurants and eat the scraps off plates of people who’d just finished their meals.”

In her late teens, Lena moved to Wellington and continued sleeping rough for another couple of years.

“I kept living like that, trying to survive.”

Through all that was a deep longing for home.

“All I wanted was my family, my mother and father, my siblings.”

Hera was also a child when she became homeless.

With her dad in prison and her mum on the street, Hera lived with her grandfather until he died when she was 8.

Then she was returned to her mother’s care.

They lived in Auckland’s CBD, sleeping in night shelters, then a boarding house in Ponsonby.

By the time she was a teenager, she’d had enough.

Lena Greaves lived rough for many years before meeting Hera. Photo / Jenny Ling

“I didn’t want that life anymore, so I took off to the streets,” Hera said.

“I was about 14 then. I slept in the bushes, under bridges and buildings, empty carparks, churches and rugby fields.

“That went on for a few years.”

Hera was about 23 when she “got her act together” and moved into a one-bedroom flat in Levin.

She and Lena met in Palmerston North after sparking up a friendship on an online dating site.

“She needed a place to stay,” Hera said.

“And she took me in,” Lena said.

“I would still be on the street if it wasn’t for Hera.

“She helped me through all of the demons I was fighting.”

The pair married in 2020 although Covid restrictions meant their wedding was small with just them, their mums and a couple of aunties in attendance.

The Greaves are telling their story to raise awareness of homelessness in Kaitāia.

Lena, 48, and Hera, 38, live in a rental property and are on the benefit because of health issues.

They visit Mj’z Cafe on Commerce St twice a week knowing they’ll get a free hot meal.

It’s tough making the benefit stretch to cover food and power bills, they say.

Mj’z owners Maryjane and Tane Manukau provide free hot soup and hearty meals through their “pay it forward” system called Koha Monday.

They started it a few years ago because of the homelessness they also witnessed. It’s been so popular they’ve expanded to Koha Wednesdays.

While Stats NZ doesn’t have figures for homelessness in Kaitāia, according to the 2023 Census, 3264 people experienced “severe housing deprivation” in the Far North.

Lena and Hera visit Mj’z cafe for hot meals on Koha Monday and Wednesday to make their benefit stretch further. Photo / Jenny Ling

This includes a range of situations from living without shelter to living in uninhabitable housing and was an increase from 2676 people in the 2018 Census.

As for solutions, all Hera knows is “somebody needs to start somewhere”.

“MJ and her staff are doing a really good job ... it’s comforting to know people are going home with kai in their puku.

“We have offered a couple of people to stay with us while they get on their feet.

“If me and my wife could, we’d open our house to all of them.”

Lena’s message to struggling whānau is “don’t give up”.

“Keep going, keep pushing forward, because there are good people out there who will help.

“Don’t be shy to ask.”

They also implored people to look out for those less fortunate – and don’t judge.

“Just talk to them,” Lena said.

“See if they’re all right, see if their babies have had a warm kai, if they have shoes on.

“Don’t look at them going, ‘oh my god, look at them going in the toilet to wash their kids’.”

Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest and social issues, along with finance and roading stories.