Former homeless woman Mazz Adams opens up about what has sparked her move to open her house to others facing nights without a roof over their heads during the AIMS Games influx.
Mazz Adams and her six children were homeless and had to leave their motel accommodation in Tauranga last year during the AIMS Games.
Now Ms Adams is one of the members of Curate Church taking in the temporary homeless during and leading up to the week-long sporting event.
"I know how it feels to not know where you're going and where things are going to be at and not knowing what's happening for the next day."
Last week the 38-year-old had five people from two homeless families staying with her at her four-bedroom Greerton rental - a woman and her child and a woman, her partner and baby.
Ms Adams and her children were living at the Ambassador Motor Inn last year when they were forced to leave because of prior bookings made for the AIMS Games.
She has been a cleaner at Merivale School for the past two-and-a-half years and they went to stay with her boss and her kids' principal Jan Tinetti for about three nights.
"The motels were all booked out and we were pretty blessed to have her and her family."
Soon after they were offered a rental home in Greerton, and one year later they are still there.
"It's wonderful," Ms Adams said.
She said her landlord, Nigel Walker, was willing to help out in any way he could.
Mr Walker said Bay City Rentals took each application on a case-by-case basis.
"Obviously our priority is to our owners but they trust our vetting system and support us in our decision-making," he said.
"We do realise there are a lot of good people who have found themselves in a similar position to Mazz and we have been able to help them as well.
"How would you feel not getting a look in with two, three or four children? The children see the stress on mum and dad, it's bloody terrible."
Mr Walker said Ms Adams had been "a particularly satisfying situation".
"We all feel better if we can help out where we can."
Mazz Adams (left) and Angela Wallace from Curate Church have been connecting accommodation offers to the temporary homeless during the AIMS Games week. Photo/George Novak.
Ms Adams said she had learned a lot while she and her children were homeless - "what needed to be done to get myself up and running".
Now she is passing on that wisdom and has helped one of the families who stayed with her last week find their own accommodation.
Curate Church has been connecting accommodation offers from the church community to those in need.
Volunteer Angela Wallace said the church saw how the AIMS Games brought many visitors into Tauranga last year and filled accommodation that usually housed the temporary homeless.
So they put a call out on Facebook this year to see if any friends and whanau could offer accommodation.
"It's in response to the huge need we noticed last year ... we thought something should be done to help."
Mrs Wallace said they have seen a great response from the Curate community with 13 households offering to host so far, "and more will offer if the need arises".
"It's what we're about - Jesus said to love others as we love ourselves."
She said four families had been hosted so far this week.
"One family of four who had to leave their motel had moved into their car."
Another Curate Church host has had a grandmother and her mokopuna staying and has also managed to find them their own accommodation to move into.
Mike Bryant, the Bay of Plenty regional commissioner for social development, said there were 55 transitional housing places in Tauranga, out of 123 in the Bay of Plenty.
"In preparation for the AIMS Games, we worked proactively on a plan that ensures we can support people and families with their emergency housing needs," he said.
"We are not aware of anyone who has been left with nowhere to stay, however encourage anyone with an emergency housing need to contact Work and Income on 0800 559 009 or call into their nearest Ministry of Social Development service centre.
"While we're confident we're meeting the current need, we acknowledge the valuable support that the community is providing to vulnerable people in their area and we will continue to work with them in the future."
