An outspoken leader at the helm of national social services organisation Lifewise has resigned and is returning home to Rotorua.
Haehaetu Barrett says she’s leaving Lifewise after 15 years to spend time with her elderly parents.
But she’s also hinted Rotorua “needs help” and there could be a “new adventure”for her in 2026.
Lifewise chief executive Haehaetu Barrett in Rotorua in 2021. Photo / File
Barrett, who was a New Zealand of the Year finalist in 2023, was pivotal in starting Lifewise in Rotorua in 2010 and in 2022 went on to become the chief executive officer of the national organisation based in Auckland.
She led a workforce of more than 400 people in the mental health, addiction and housing services and oversaw contracts worth $31 million.
She is partially blind, suffering from a condition called retinitis pigmentosa which is a rare genetic condition.
She made headlines in 2022 after she “shut down” Four Canoes in Rotorua and called the Government out for the shoddy conditions in which it was housing the homeless.
Lifewise staff were at the time sent in as a wrap-around service to look after those who were living in the Fenton St contracted emergency housing Covid-19 response motel.
But Barrett immediately ordered her staff to leave for health and safety reasons and alerted officials.
Lifewise chief executive officer Haehaetu Barrett speaks at the addictions conference. Photo / Andrew Warner
She told an addictions conference in Rotorua a year later she shut it down because “I wouldn’t even put my Rotties in what I found”.
“I shut down the Four Canoes here last year. Not fit for purpose for my people ... You come and clean this up or you sleep in it.”
Barrett weighed into the debate about the recent rough sleepers causing havoc on Amohia and Pukuatua Streets in Rotorua this month telling the Rotorua Daily Post the city needed a crisis centre.
She said such a centre could triage people into long-term rehabilitation centres but they needed somewhere to go first to prepare them for that change.
“Give me a building. But you can’t come in smoking your meth pipe,” she told the Rotorua Daily Post this month.
The homeless and their possessions outside the Salvation Army store on Amohia St. Photo / Kelly Makiha
Her suggestion followed complaints from locals about the behaviour of the homeless including that some were taking drugs and drug dealing, drinking alcohol, urinating and defecating on the street and having sexual intercourse in public view.
Barrett told the Rotorua Daily Post this week it was definitely time to “come home”, not only to support her whānau but also Rotorua.
“But I’ll get back into the space quite fast as it’s a mess down here.”
In announcing her resignation from Lifewise on Monday on her Facebook page, Barrett posted a link to Lifewise’s Merge Cafe, saying that was what was needed in Rotorua.
She said she was tired of the repetitive conversations that occurred with “zero outcomes” and had decided it was time to “come home to Rotorua and hang up fighting the system” for a while and spend quality time with her parents.
However, she said she was still at the helm for eight weeks and would continue to “disrupt the status quo” in that time.
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.
