A homeless man living in a motel on Fenton St died suddenly at the weekend. Photo / File
A homeless man living in a motel on Fenton St died suddenly at the weekend. Photo / File
A man who had been living in a tent and was moved to a motel for the nation's level 4 lockdown has died suddenly. Journalist Kelly Makiha talks to those who knew him about why he enjoyed the last few weeks of his life.
A homeless Rotorua man who died suddenly at the weekend had spent the last three weeks of his life enjoying living in a motel.
Emergency services were called to the motel on Fenton St at 4.20am on Sunday after a man died suddenly.
A police spokeswoman said the man was in his 50s and the death didn't appear to be suspicious. A St John Ambulance spokeswoman said two ambulances were sent.
The motel where the man was staying is one of two converted to emergency housing to house those who had previously been staying at the Night Shelter run by Visions of a Helping Hand Charitable Trust.
Tiny Deane from the trust said those staying at the motels were incredibly saddened by the man's death and he had offered money to the man's family to help pay for funeral costs.
His wife, Lynley Deane, who is also a member of the trust, said the man had previously lived in a tent at different locations around Rotorua with a family member.
She said he was one of several who had been moved into the motels when New Zealand moved to level 4 lockdown.
She said he had a pre-existing health condition and living rough in a tent had not been ideal for him.
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"For the three weeks he was here, he had a nice bed and had been very social, at the 2m distance of course."
She said those living in the motels had become an even closer community and they were reeling from his death.
"When he passed, we had a blessing of his room and sung some waiata to lift the spirits of the group ... He was well-liked and he seemed to be well-known by the others."
Lynley Deane said a member of his family was also living in the motel with them.
"It was definitely comforting to him that this didn't happen when he was living in a tent. It would have been worse for the family member because at least this way there was support for him."
Lynley Deane from Visions of a Helping Hand Charitable Trust. Photo / File
"We are trying to sing, laugh. I'm putting together a booklet of photos of our time in lockdown and there were some of him in there smiling and enjoying the environment. I've given those to this family and they said they didn't have many photos of him so it was nice."
A Ministry of Social Development spokesman said he couldn't comment about the man's death.
