Rotorua letters to the editor: Number of homeless a shocking reflection

One of the new sleeping pods. Photo / Supplied

Opinion

Thank you for your recent article describing Rotorua Lakes Council’s response to the offer of provision of sleeping pods for Rotorua’s homeless (Rotorua Daily Post, July 17).

Congratulations to Love Soup for their proactive measures in providing sleeping pods for some of Rotorua’s homeless (some of whom have been hospitalised as a result of appalling weather conditions).

The council, however, rather than supporting these measures, is, in my view, once more - in its demand for costly consents - creating roadblocks.

We experienced a similar situation several years ago when the then Nightshelter Trust rented an inner-city house to accommodate up to 10 homeless people ...

Rotorua’s growing number of homeless (many of whom are aged over 50) is a shocking reflection on this city and - specifically - on both Rotorua Lakes Council and the current government.

Roll on the local body elections!

Jackie Evans

Pukehangi

Boost for inner city

Re Shake-up for inner-city parking (Rotorua Daily Post, July 11). I think it is an absolutely brilliant idea (which) would stop me dreading going into the city centre and it would make the city centre compete with the malls again.

Everybody likes a level playing field, it would boost the inner city business no end.

Gavin Muir

Springfield

Fair deal for retirees

What an excellent article by Shane Te Pou on the subject of retirement village charges, especially highlighting the costs if one has to sell the unit (Opinion, July 14). Ingrid Leary’s new Member’s Bill is well overdue as this has been the case for years now and should be a priority for this Government.

Anne Foale

Tikitere

Bigger issues than butter

So why the obsession with the price of butter for goodness’ sake? It is but one factor in the overall cost of living crisis, and while its financial gymnastics have a media following worthy of the once youthful Olga Korbut, hasn’t the Minister of Finance got much bigger issues to deal with? Or has she been sucked into the trivia the media seeks to blind us with when there are much bigger issues at hand?

We live in a big world of injustices, crime, bumpy roads, desperate health care shortages, global warming ... and we focus on the price of butter? Or is it perhaps that it’s all a bit too hard and the reality has set in, that no government can fix this broken world, so we’ll bury our head in Fonterra’s chest and cry “injustice”?

John Williams

Ngongotahā

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