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Richard Hazeldine-Barber suffers from a rare disability and when his mother was in her dying days, she made him promise he would be okay when she was gone.
Now the Rotorua man is facing homelessness and fears he will break that promise.
The 48-year-old has lived in a Rotorua Habitat for Humanity house for the past six years - five of which were with his mother, who helped care for him.
Hazeldine-Barber has now been told his home will be removed and replaced with three family homes under a Government housing partnership with Habitat for Humanity.
He is not eligible to have one of the new homes, there are no other Habitat For Humanity houses in Rotorua and his deadline to find somewhere to live is up in just a few weeks.
Hazeldine-Barber was told the devastating news that he had 90 days to move out at Waitangi weekend this year.
It was another blow for him after losing his mother 11 months earlier.
She was the one who had always been by his side through his lifetime of living with Prader-Willi syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes obesity, intellectual disability and short stature.
Richard Hazeldine-Barber's mother, Marie Hazeldine-Barber (above), died last year. Photo / Andrew Warner
Hazeldine-Barber also suffers from spina bifida.
He came to Rotorua after leaving Christchurch following the earthquakes and built a new life for himself. His mother, Marie Hazeldine-Barber, soon followed.
They applied for a Habitat for Humanity home six years ago and Hazeldine-Barber said he and his mother understood they were renting it to own.
The Bellingham Crescent home sits on a large section and he said he was told the back of the section would eventually have a four-bedroom home built on it.
Through tears, he told the Rotorua Daily Post he got the shock of his life when he was told he would have to leave, his home was being removed and he wasn’t being given anywhere else to go.
In his opinion: “I think it is so cruel. Where is the humanity? They all know my situation.”
Hazeldine-Barber said he was crying uncontrollably on the phone when he was told.
“I said ‘Have you got any other homes?’ and they said ‘No’.”
He said he was on a Supported Living Benefit and paid $300 a week for his home but he could not find another one. Now, he feared he would be homeless.
“I’m not looking for a five-star hotel but I just want a house that’s clean and tidy.”
He said his mother would be so upset knowing this had happened, and the stress of having to find somewhere else to live was taking its toll on his health. His blood pressure had gone up, he was back and forward to his doctor and he was physically sick.
“I need a miracle. I know time is running out. I am very, very frightened. I will have nowhere to live through no fault of my own.”
Richard Hazeldine-Barber lives in a Habitat for Humanity house that's being pulled down to build three family homes, but he is not being offered one of them and says he faces being homeless. Photo / Andrew Warner
Habitat for Humanity central region chief executive Nick Green said Hazeldine-Barber and his mother were interested in the rent-to-buy scheme when they took on the tenancy six years ago but their household incomes did not support the programme. They were instead put into an affordable rental.
He said Rotorua was “an absolute focus” for affordable housing given the city’s housing crisis and the section Hazeldine-Barber lived on had the potential to house many people.
Habitat for Humanity had entered into an agreement with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to build two three-bedroom homes and one four-bedroom home on the section, hopefully by the end of this year.
The homes would be offered under a “progressive home ownership programme”, or rent-to-buy scheme. Green said for that reason and the fact the ministry’s priorities were for Māori and Pacific people and families, Hazeldine-Barber was not eligible or suitable for the programme.
Asked if Hazeldine-Barber could be given the house if he found a piece of land for it to be moved to, Green said the future of the house was still under discussion.
“We have offered it to a couple of iwi groups because it is no use to us as a home as we don’t have any land to move it on to.”
Green said Habitat for Humanity had put Hazeldine-Barber in touch with agencies to help find him a home but that was all it could do.
“We don’t have vacancies in our portfolio so there is a limited amount we can do... We totally understand where he is coming from but we have one small house on a big property that we need to use more effectively because there is a bigger housing issue at stake.”
Green said being told to move was one of the “challenges” of rental accommodation.
“It is an asset and a property owned by someone else. It is Richard’s home but it is our house. We are doing the best we can to support him but we need to make some tough decisions.”
When the Rotorua Daily Post asked Green if Habitat for Humanity would reconsider or try to find a solution for Hazeldine-Barber, Green said he would “have another chat to our staff”.
“But within our portfolio, there are no vacancies and we have done everything we can.”
