Opinion: Scheme sets homeless on positive path

Te Maori columnist and chairman of Te Tatau o Te Arawa, Rotorua Lakes Council partnership, Te Taru White. Photo / File

Homelessness has many faces all of which lead to a sense of despair and suffering. We have seen this in the recent hīkoi for the homeless - so what to do?

We can offer a facility where they can have access to a warm shower, dry clothes and storage.

Certainly that is something we should provide now while we search for longer term, sustainable solutions.

On this point as the hīkoi was marching, I was with my daughter in Palmerston North where she was running her housing programme for another face of homelessness - those who never thought they could own a home, living in overcrowded conditions, paying exorbitant rents and in constant despair.

What a difference a day can make in the lives of people if you can offer them real solutions where despair morphs into hope and in turn into real self-determining opportunities.

At the start of the programme you could feel the despair of the participants but there was a spark of hope that maybe this programme could be different.

By the end of the day, they were beaming excitedly that this was their chance, on their efforts and merits to own a home.

So how did this happen? My daughter Inez White is a registered valuer both in Australia and New Zealand.

She could see the challenges our people faced in particular the fear of navigating a pathway to home ownership in a system that could so easily pre-judge them and decline their efforts at the first hurdle.

Enter the navigator Inez. She demystified the system for them, showed them the key points to navigating successfully through the system leading to the banks.

She explained how credit, financial behaviour and an appropriate deposit (including collective options) are the keys to unlocking the door.

She started by encouraging participants to access their credit ratings, something that many people fear the most.

Understandably they were whakamā but with some helpful prompting they did it in real time.

What an unbelievable outcome – several of them had exemplary credit ratings and others knew exactly what to do to improve their ratings and they took action immediately by phoning the credit agencies to work through solutions.

This highly interactive approach, with follow-up one-on-one sessions, just blew everyone away.

You could feel them reclaiming their mana – instant gratification.

They were taught how to fish and not just given the fish.

It was a privilege to observe the change in their wairua and a warm sense of self-determination within – they were going to get their own homes and become teachers themselves.

I am so proud of my daughter who has to date helped more than 35 families get into home ownership and it looks like at least another four will be added to the list from Palmerston North.

What a contribution to a homelessness solution.

Te Taru is from Te Arawa, Tainui and Ngāti Porou descent and is the chairman of Te Tatau o Te Arawa, Rotorua Lakes Council partnership. His website is http://tetaruwhite.com.