Napier homeless shelter to open with $115,000 funding boost

Movie producer Dame Gaylene Preston (left) and Cath Norrie, the Napier night shelter project supporter who bought a rare book of the sketch work behind the movie Ruby and Rata in Napier on May 22. Photo / Doug Laing.

• A pilot homeless night shelter in Napier could open by month’s end with more than $115,000 secured.
• The Napier City Council contributed $100,000 in grants over two years to support the initiative.
• The shelter aims to house six to eight vulnerable individuals, with a focus on permanent accommodation.

A pilot homeless night shelter could open in Napier by the end of this month with more than $115,000 guaranteed, just three months after its new trust was formed.

The biggest boost comes from $100,000 in two grants over the next two years from the Napier City Council, agreed after draft annual plan submissions hearings last week.

Of the grants, $62,000 is from the current year’s project fund and a further $38,000 is from the 2025-2026 fund.

Fundraising for the Napier Ahuriri Homeless Shelter Incorporated Society, established in February aims to get six to eight of the most vulnerable street-homeless people into a facility before winter.

It was kick-started with about $15,000 raised in a movie night and auction on May 22.

It was prompted by at least two deaths among the street-dwelling community in Napier, inluding that of Boy Taylor, described as a ”gentle soul" and “harmless” but who was assaulted in Emerson St last December.

Trust chair Mark Cleary said the total was about a third of that needed for the first year, but with confirmation of a facility expected soon, the staffed centre was likely to be in use by the end of the month.

Its ultimate aim was to get the most serious cases off the streets and into stable and permanent accommodation.

“We are really rapt,” Cleary said.

“It means we can get moving. We are meeting straight away to make the next calls.”

He said the trust hoped to expand, working with such organisations as Whatever It Takes Trust and Te Kupenga Hauora to initially deal with the most serious cases, all of whom were familiar and active with the organisations represented on the trust.

Napier Mayor Kirsten Wise said she “fully” supported the society’s aim and its efforts to provide a space for the homeless to connect and work towards secure accommodation.

“Something as simple as having an address will enable those at the shelter to access social services and other support, as well as a place to safely leave their belongings,” she said.

“Staff will develop the values and behaviours expected at the shelter with whānau, encouraging a sense of belonging and responsibility, and giving them the licence to build a better future for themselves.”

The trust would initiate an evaluation of the pilot project’s success and report regularly to the council on progress.

The movie night last month showed the 1990 film Ruby and Rata, a story of a homeless woman and her son looking for accommodation, scripted by the late Graeme Tetley, who grew up in Havelock North, and produced by Dame Gaylene Preston, who grew up in Napier.

The night raised more than $13,000 in ticket sales and donations with a sell-out audience of 300.

Dame Gaylene, in a spontaneous act of support, auctioned off one of just five books produced with the original sketches around which the movie took shape and which sold for $1500.

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 52 years of journalism experience, 42 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.