The pensioner who died living in her car in one of Auckland’s wealthiest suburbs succumbed to emphysema and had “access to funds and housing” despite her seemingly desperate situation, a coroner has found.
Helena Wakefield’s death, discovered on July 7, 2022, exposed a litany of systemic failures in Auckland Council’s call centre protocol - which the council has revealed sparked a thorough review, changes to its call prioritsation and the response times of compliance officers.
Fresh details of the lonely end to Wakefield’s life are released today in findings delivered by Coroner Tania Tetitaha - most notably that the 72-year-old had access to $873 a week through an Australian pension but was apparently not claiming it.
Disturbingly, the report determines Wakefield’s death as happening between June 26 and July 7 last year - indicating the pensioner could have been dead in her car for up to 12 days before being found.
The report also reiterates the failed attempts by residents in St Vincent Avenue, Remuera, where Wakefield was living in her car, to get Auckland Council workers to check on her in person. The Herald had previously revealed the council was called five times about Wakefield by concerned residents.
Wakefield was found in her red Suzuki Swift hatchback in St Vincent Ave on July 7 after living on the streets in the same suburb where she grew up since early May 2022.
It subsequently emerged she had been evicted from the $1.2 million Remuera property she and her brother inherited following their mother’s death in 2019.
Wakefield was the full-time carer for her mother who had dementia, whom she’d lived with in the Dempsey St home since 2011. But following her mother’s death, High Court documents show Wakefield refused to cooperate with her brother on executing their mother’s will. She was eventually evicted by him in December 2021.
Emerging from today’s coroner’s report is the financial means Wakefield had access to in order to obtain housing.
“Despite the dispute [with Larry Wakefield], there was evidence she had access to funds and housing,” Coroner Tetitaha said.
“The executor of her mother’s estate confirmed that Ms Wakefield had to be evicted from their mother’s home so it could be sold on or about 15 December, 2021. However, the estate had made offers of six months’ paid temporary accommodation but this was not accepted.
“On 26 January 2022 she was advised her house contents were stored in a unit at her cost that she could access until 25 February 2022 when they would be disposed of. Ms Wakefield had taken the red car and some clothing but otherwise would not accept assistance or engage with the executor’s solicitors.
“Ms Wakefield had financial assistance by way of an Australian pension totalling $873.88 per week. She was also due to receive the proceeds from her share of her mother’s estate.”
Paperwork was recovered from the car Wakefield died in relating to a family civil dispute regarding her mother’s estate, today’s report also reveals.
There was evidence Wakefield’s lack of engagement with the money she was entitled to may have been related to mental health issues.
“Ms Wakefield was described as reclusive and non-communicative,” Tetitaha said.
“A witness suspected she had undiagnosed mental health issues and might have refused to engage with social services agencies such as the City Mission. Attempts by her whānau to locate her using a private investigator were also unsuccessful.”
At the time of Wakefield’s death, Auckland Council admitted staff had been called several times by concerned residents about a woman living in her car, but had incorrectly categorised the incident as freedom camping. The incident was allegedly therefore not elevated to the urgency that a homeless person living in their car should be.
Internal council documents obtained by the Herald last year revealed a string of other administrative errors leading up to Wakefield’s death, including a team leader missing an urgent email for weeks while sick, and confusion over the definition of “homelessness”.
One of the most glaring errors was that when Auckland Council’s call centre received the fourth and fifth calls about Wakefield over the course of a few months on June 7 - the first three calls had been in May - the alert was redirected to sit in a team leader’s inbox for “several weeks” while they were on sick leave.
The email that lay unattended in an inbox would have been during the final weeks of Wakefield’s life.
This week, Auckland Council’s director for regulatory services, Craig Hobbs, provided an update on procedures changes stemming from the council’s failure to respond to Wakefield’s plight.
“The death of Helena Wakefield last year was a sad occurrence. In evaluating the council’s involvement, we undertook a thorough review of all relevant processes and identified where improvements could be made. Our current process involves outreach partners as early as it is appropriate to do so.”
Hobbs said the council received one to two reports of people living in their cars across Auckland every week.
“Our frontline staff ask customers reporting homelessness, people camping in parks, people sleeping in cars and the like if they have welfare concerns for the people they are calling about. All calls that need welfare support are treated as a priority, and are either attended by a compliance officer on the same day or by an outreach partner, usually within four hours.”
The post-mortem examination into Wakefield determined she died from “chronic obstructive respiratory disease or emphysema”.
Coroner Tetitaha described her death as due to natural causes and said police had confirmed there were no suspicious circumstances.
On news of his sister’s lonely death, Australia-based Larry Wakefield provided the Herald with a statement clarifying his actions.
“This is an extremely distressing time for me,” Wakefield said via his lawyer.
“Despite every effort, the private investigator was unable to find Helena before she passed away last week. I cannot understand why no action was taken until now after local residents expressed concerns and alerted authorities.”
Larry Wakefield said when their mother died, her property in Remuera had to be sold and the proceeds split between the siblings.
“Mum passed away in May 2019 and Helena left the property in December 2021. Helena was offered six months rent, and when she left the property, offered hotel accommodation, until she got her half share. She did not take up these offers.”
After his sister left the Dempsey St home he became concerned about her welfare and took action to track her down.
He had been unsure if she was even still in New Zealand or had returned to Australia where she’d lived in the past.
He faces two charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.