Locals ready to sleep rough

A night out sleeping on the streets of Whangarei during winter is on the cards after a successful sit-in in support of emergency housing in Northland.

As many as 65 people converged at the Cameron St Mall on Saturday with their sleeping bags and cardboard signs to support the financially beleaguered Tai Tokerau Emergency Housing Trust's work to help those seeking shelter. The sit-in was to demonstrate how the trust housed 206 people - 124 adults and 82 children - last year as part of its services.

Trust chairman Adrian Whale said it was pleasing to see people of all ages - school children to 80-year-olds - emphasising the need for decent housing during the two-hour demonstration.

Trust members handed out 200 flyers and received three offers of help from the public.

Mr Whale said financial assistance and long-term property development were among offers made to the trust. It would soon request meetings with Housing Minister Nick Smith and representatives of the Corrections Department to discuss housing needs in Northland. "We're also looking at spending a night on the streets in the middle of winter but that will take a lot of co-ordination and a permit from the Whangarei District Council," Mr Whale said.

The trust is taking its cue from the Lifewise Trust which organises a night on the streets in Auckland each winter.

No offers of further financial assistance has come to the trust since last week, despite it seeing four new families a week. The trust needs $15,000 urgently and about $40,000 before the end of the year to keep operating its temporary accommodation in Whangarei. The trust was set up in 2006 and offers emergency, temporary accommodation for about 33 people at one time, in houses or motel rooms around Whangarei. In 2012, it accommodated 206 people. Clients include women and children, people who have lost their jobs, and single men released from prison. A typical stay in emergency housing is between six to eight weeks, during which the trust helps with budgeting and transitions to other accommodation.