In May this year Kellie Kioa opened her home to the 30th homeless family in 24 months and she told the Bay of Plenty Times the city desperately needed an emergency housing facility.
At that time she had a family of five living in the garage at her Housing New Zealand home and another single working mother-of-two staying in a bedroom.
In 2012 she had started Te Tawharau o te Ora, a charity dedicated to providing that service, and had applied for funding and lobbied politicians.
In the last quarter of 2015 she had fielded 33 more inquiries from people seeking emergency housing, she said.
Her most recent case included a family who moved into a home which was sold six weeks later, she said and they had until the end of January 2016 to find accommodation.