Local Focus: The homeless lifeline for Tauranga women

Hine Ngākau opened in May of this year and has housed more than 40 women.

It is a women's and transgender women's shelter in Tauranga.

One of the shelter's regulars is Chelsea Haimona of Tauranga. She has been homeless for three years and is one of many women sleeping rough in the city.

Haimona said general deprivation and lack of support had greatly affected her health.

"It's so stressful to live like that," she said.

"Waking up on a Friday and all your stuff is on the road and you're wondering, 'Oh no am I going to get a place today. Are they going to renew my stuff?'"

With nowhere to call home, Haimona had to give her son to her family to ensure good care.

"I just need a house for somewhere to stay, but they make you do all of these things just to get into a room that's not even stable, that you could be out in emergency again.

"So it's just a lot of stress."

She says she can go to her family but because of her mental health prefers to sleep at a stadium.

Rosie Mills doesn't stay in one place for too long and prefers to move around.

She lost her home in a fire and has been living on the street on-and-off for three years.

"I've had to sleep under trees," Mills said

"I've been in a motor camp. I've had to leave a motor camp. I've been in a house for three months, and after that, it collapsed. Everything collapsed."

She says her situation is embarrassing.

"Fortunately, I sort of disguise it a bit and I never stay in the same place."

"I'll hide around doorsteps or something like that, but never in the same place.

"Because if you stay in the same place people can see you and then they turn around and go 'She's homeless, she shouldn't be here. She's in the way, she's a problem'."

Hine Ngākau is a lifeline for women like Rosie and Chelsea.

"Before this place opened I was just living right on the roadside," Haimona said.

"I got a job in town and I needed somewhere to have a wash and all that stuff to go back to work, so this place has been so good."

Kaiāwhina Ngaire Papuni receives the women who stay at the shelter each night.

She says it is a challenging yet rewarding role and connects with the women "through my own struggles of living with all the abuses: you have gambling, alcohol, physical and mental abuse."

Many of the women arrive at the shelter from volatile situations, often violent.

"I see a lot of mental health issues, from depression to schizophrenia," Papuni said.

The night shelter is open from Sunday to Thursday but soon its lease will end.

The He Kaupapa Kotahitanga Trust Tauranga needs long-term funding so it can continue to help women in need.