Meet Gill Howard, running for Whanganui District Council.
Watch the full Local Focus interview for Gill Howard's views on the region's biggest issues, and our less important quickfire questions.
"It's very hard for people who have disadvantages to be heard," says Gill Howard. It's why she is running for council, despite being homeless until recently.
"Being heard isnot accessible to people without power or money."
Howard has been a beneficiary for 20 years and was homeless living in a caravan by the river for about a year. She found her way out by gatecrashing a social workers' meeting and personally tracking down the person she thought "seemed to be involved with the new social housing in Victoria Avenue".
Despite being in a building with four walls and a roof, she describes her living arrangement as "very scary" and says she has been accosted and frightened there.
If Howard is elected she says she would be a "go-to for disability issues".
"You should just build disability into housing. Just make a bigger bathroom. It's just a consideration that has to be factored in."
Getting elected seems like a longshot to Howard who says she only knows "about a hundred people" and admits she "probably pissed off a few of those that I do know locally, but I think even those I've pissed off would acknowledge my integrity".
