Homeless former sports star offered shelter and potential jobs by sympathetic Kiwis

A gold medal-winning sportswoman living in Auckland says she is homeless and jobless after being in an abusive relationship. Photo / 123RF

A handful of Good Samaritans have offered jobs and shelter to a gold medallist living in Auckland who has found herself jobless and homeless.

The mother-of-three was being moved out of a women's refuge today and into emergency accommodation provided by the Ministry of Social Development, which has said she can stay for a week.

She has an abusive ex-partner who is being released from jail next month and she fears that the accommodation - a motel unit - will not be secure. The woman asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons.

The Herald received offers from several people around the country today who wanted to help her.

One reader, noting that the woman had worked as a teacher, said they had a job available at a daycare in Ellerslie.

A family in the Manawatu said they had a teaching job and a place for the woman and her children to live.

And another, who said she had also been a victim of domestic violence, said the woman's family could live with her in Hamilton.

Further offers were made on the Herald's social media pages.

The sportswoman said she deeply appreciated New Zealanders' sympathy for her plight and was considering some of the offers.

"I am keeping an eye out for local support," she said.

"This is a devastating situation for my family right now with only a few days in this motel."

She came to live in New Zealand in the early 2000s after a successful sporting career overseas which included a gold medal at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in British Columbia, an appearance at the Olympics and places at World Championships.

But she was left with chronic injuries from her sporting career, and after settling in Auckland she became involved in an abusive relationship and fell into depression.

Her ex-partner was sentenced to 18 months' jail for various offences including threatening to kill. His release date is next month.

Jobless and suffering from anxiety as a result of her domestic abuse, the woman was accepted into a women's refuge five months ago.

The refuge said it was ending her tenancy because it was not an emergency housing provider and she was not at immediate risk.