Opinion: Arataki Community Centre's open-door shower policy giving homeless families dignity

Arataki Community Centre has refurbished its shower facilities for the homeless. Photo/George Novak

Arataki Community Centre is opening its doors for homeless people to have showers.

The recently refurbished shower and toilet facility at the centre will be opened between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday, giving homeless people a chance to clean up.

This is the kind of sensible move that this city needs to help its struggling homeless families, and follows on a similar initiative started by a central-city marae.

Huria Marae in Judea last year opened its doors twice a week to offer homeless people food, showers and washing facilities. The marae was not able to have people stay there but wanted to do what it could to help.

The Arataki Community Centre is a perfect location for homeless people in the beach suburbs.

The facilities sit empty every day except Saturday, so no groups or users will be put out by the gesture. Instead, it is making use of existing infrastructure to deal with a new problem - entire families left sleeping in cars or couch surfing day-to-day because of the city's shortage of rental properties.

The only concern I have is around the opening hours - they will be fine for unemployed homeless people, but there won't be much time for parents to get their children from school to the shower before 5pm and daytime workers will completely miss the opening hours.

But it's a start, and a good one. I hope it's something that can be replicated at other community centres and facilities around the city so anyone, regardless of their housing situation, can have the dignity of being clean.