People's experiences with homelessness have helped action plans to better address it. Photo / Getty Images
People's experiences with homelessness have helped action plans to better address it. Photo / Getty Images
Brett picked up a flesh-eating disease after voluntarily helping with the clean-up from the devastating 2017 flood in Edgecumbe.
After weeks in hospital receiving treatment for necrotising fasciitis - including four surgeries - he was discharged with nowhere to go.
He wound up homeless in Tauranga for three years.
Brett,in his 50s, lived in a car until "the council took it" then began sleeping rough, living off food from community groups such as Under the Stars and Street Kai.
The 2017 flooding in Edgecumbe forced the evacuation of many residents. Photo / NZME
His experience is one of a collection of personal stories about experiences of homelessness in the city featuring in a new book created as part of an effort to better understand and drive action to address homelessness in Tauranga - an issue believed to affect about 4000 people.
"When the Dominoes Start to Fall", released in June, was created by the Tauranga City Council Community Partnerships Team, Kāinga Tupu: Growing Homes Taskforce, and the Western Bay of Plenty Homelessness Providers' Network.
Kāinga Tupu co-ordinator Jodie Robertson said the groups originally planned on a research project to help identify systemic barriers that could be addressed but the work morphed into a book once the stories started to unfold.
Robertson said working with different providers such as men's night shelter Takitimu House "allowed us to talk to men living with homelessness, directly".
The cover of When The Dominos Start to Fall, a collection of stories about homelessness in Tauranga. Image / Supplied
"We had to hear it from them. We had to make sure what we are asking would benefit them. That was the intention of the book - talking to people experiencing homelessness and finding out directly from them what do they need, what has been really difficult for them, etc."
She said the stories highlighted "what we can do better".
For example, some people had to access "so many different providers" for different needs in different parts of the region - sometimes without a vehicle.
"That can be daunting for anyone. So part of that barrier now is 'how do we work together?'" Robertson said.
She said the taskforce and network were working to create an interagency care management system to help people already using multiple services.
"We are piloting that at the moment. That's a direct response to the funding, but we are only just starting out."
Tauranga City Council recently approved funding for a full-time advisor at Kāinga Tupu.
Jodie Robertson is the coordinator of Kāinga Tupu: Growing Homes Taskforce. Photo / File
Robertson said the range of issues homeless people faced could be "incredibly complex" but the book was one way they could better understand the issue and hopefully remedy it.
"That's the guts of writing this book. Now it's what we do with it [the information] and how we do it that matters."
She paid tribute to those people who shared their journeys in the book.
"Hopefully, their stories could help others."
For Brett, the book states he is an educated person and "comfortable" where he is but when asked, said he would like his own house.
Others featured included Tūī - a 62-year-old woman sleeping rough on Tauranga's streets for nearly a year.
Tūī had worked for over 40 years but become "stuck" staying with a friend during the Covid-19 lockdown.
The book found finding an affordable dwelling for a single person in Tauranga was a challenge and Tūī's story highlighted the need to have a range of housing options.
Others featured include young people in transitional housing due to "poor decisions"; a single parent unsuccessful in rental applications, another woman escaping a violent relationship; trauma and abuse victims struggling with addiction; migrants unaware of what help there is available to them; and a "streetie" of 20 years.
Organisations involved in the taskforce include the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Te Pūni Kōkiri, Ministry of Social Development, Kāinga Ora: Homes and Communities, NZ Police, Department of Corrections, Bay of Plenty District Health Board, Wise Group, Ngāti Ranginui Iwi Society Trust, BayTrust, EmpowermentNZ, Under the Stars, Accessible Properties, Huria Marae, and members of the Tauranga City Council Action Groups.
It is a continuation of the Mayoral Taskforce on Homelessness.
The book can be found via these providers, at Tauranga libraries, and free copies can be downloaded from the council website via the homelessness page, under the menu option: What it's like being homeless.
