By Amy Williams of RNZ
Auckland boarding house managers say they evicted 26 vulnerable people with just two days’ notice, because of safety fears.
The five tenants were rehoused – the rest were squatters and social service outreach teams had to scramble to find them shelter.
Bryan Watling had been living at St Albans Lodge in Mt Eden for about seven years, after 15 years sleeping rough in the city centre.
Last month, he was among those at the derelict 22-bedroom boarding house who were served eviction notices, with just two days to move out – on health and safety grounds.
He said the boarding house became unsafe when squatters took over most of the rooms.
“Just the wrong people moved in and a lot of strangers, you’d wake up at three in the morning to go to the toilet or something, walk out of your room and there’d be total strangers standing there eye wide from the meth use and it was kind of scary at times because you just don’t know what state of mind they’re in.”
Watling said he got clean of meth 12 years ago and, because of a spinal condition, cannot work.
He started spending his days out, to avoid the place that had become his home.
“I’d go back from going into town or something and there’d be a bunch of people in the kitchen spotting on the stove. I think Malcolm, he had his room broken into by a couple of them, there was constant swearing and yelling.”
Watling said some squatters took the doors off shared bathrooms and kitchens, to sell.
“Looked like a hurricane had gone through the place, it was terrible. I’d walk out of my room, there’d be boards with nails sticking out. It was shocking.”
Just off Dominion Rd, St Albans Lodge has a property value of $3.1 million and is earmarked for demolition – $3m of the value is in the land.
It is owned by a developer who brought in Charlton Property Management to manage the boarding house a year ago.
Fred Ofa owned the property management company and said tenants were given 90 days’ notice to move before health and safety became a concern and the two-day notice was issued in July.
He feared for the residents’ safety because the fire alarm system had been repeatedly broken.
“At any time if a fire was to arise no one would know about it so we took it on to remove the tenants and house them rather than have something happen to them during their stay at St Albans.”
He said he did not want another Loafers Lodge tragedy.
This week, a man is facing court, charged with murdering five people by setting fire to the Wellington boarding house more than two years ago.
Ofa said the five St Albans tenants were offered rooms at a nearby boarding house under his company’s management.
Charlton Property managed eight boarding houses in Auckland and Ofa said it had its own stringent policies and standards, given tenants were often vulnerable.
“First of all, every tenant gets a tenancy agreement, all the boarding facilities have healthy homes, a lot of the ones that are commercial have BWOF [Building Warrant of Fitness]. We do have extra security and building managers.”
Ofa said there were many boarding houses operating outside those boundaries and he would like to see the sector regulated, with more oversight from both local and central government.
It came as social services warned hundreds of otherwise homeless people in Auckland, including families, were turning to these lodges, which were unregulated.
Over the past eight months, outreach teams from Kāhui Tū Kaha had been door-knocking Auckland’s lodges to meet the owners and work alongside them to support the vulnerable people under their roofs.
That outreach was financially supported by Auckland Council as part of its ongoing commitment to address homelessness in the region.
Its regional partnership lead on homelessness, Ron Sukyer, said when people were evicted from St Albans Lodge, the council played an advisory supporting role to help tenants.
“We advised Lifewise, a council outreach partner, on the legalities required for eviction notices and how to register concern with the Tenancy Tribunal,” he said.
“We also connected with other accommodation providers to seek available options for those who had been displaced, including the Ministry of Social Development.”
Lifewise chief executive Haehaetu Barrett said it was hard to find housing for the St Albans Lodge squatters.
“People were given two days’ notice which caused huge distress and we were able to help some of those but that’s how it is in the boarding home environment,” she said.
“There’s a crisis, they’re having to be used and we haven’t pipelined appropriately for the transition of people coming out of [emergency housing] motels into appropriate housing so it’s definitely highlighted that people who use boarding houses often don’t get the support they need.”
Barrett said people staying at boarding houses often had complex needs and may have fallen through the cracks of mental health or addiction services.
She said it was important they were housed safely with wraparound support.
It has been three weeks since Bryan Watling moved from St Albans Lodge to his new place which he said was an upgrade – he has an ensuite.
“Oh mate you know I couldn’t explain it, just grateful really.”
Watling said although the move from St Albans Lodge was daunting, he appreciated the help from the boarding house managers and agreed with the eviction.
“I actually thought at one stage, if something doesn’t happen someone’s going to get killed. That’s pretty much how bad it was.”