Annamarie Angus, manager of Tauranga Moana Night Shelter, says it is still running at capacity and it is getting harder to access some of the support and services needed. Photo/file.
Annamarie Angus, manager of Tauranga Moana Night Shelter, says it is still running at capacity and it is getting harder to access some of the support and services needed. Photo/file.
The Tauranga Moana Night Shelter for men is running at capacity and its manager says it is getting harder to access some of the support and services they need to safely transition men out of homelessness.
Annamarie Angus said 20 men stayed at the shelter most nights, the maximum number possible.
"We're generally full and generally turning people away," she said.
"It changes all the time, every single day. So we don't want to discourage people from turning up at our door every day at 3pm because someone could have left or decided it's not for them."
Ms Angus said last year's statistics showed the shelter, on Elizabeth St in the CBD, was at 94.5 per cent capacity for the whole financial year.
"Men in dire need and requiring shelter and support is continually trending upwards," she said.
"Whilst we have often found ourselves in the position of turning people away, last week was the first time that I have had three men on the doorstep and only one bed to allocate. How does one choose which person gets to come through our door? It's an awful situation to be in."
Ms Angus said the housing crisis in Tauranga and the large number of homeless or inadequately housed women and families were making it difficult to find appropriate housing for single men.
"To even get housing, we are not getting the housing that we got for the first year or two that we were in operation and we're not getting it now because obviously women and children are taking precedence over men who are culturally seen as just able to tough it out.
"That's what it looks like to us - that's the bottleneck we are experiencing, some of our men are ready to get on with the lives they deserve in a home they can call their own."
In March, the Bay of Plenty Times reported the shelter was running at capacity and that record numbers of men had taken refuge there over the summer months.
At the time, it had helped 281 clients since opening in September, 2014. About 116 of them (41 per cent) were aged 21 to 35.
As of yesterday morning, that number was 336 since 2014.
Manager of the Salvation Army's social services in Tauranga, Davina Plummer, said it had four emergency houses used to house whoever was in the most need.
"The nature of the houses we've been able to source is that they tend to be more suitable for families rather than single people. There is a lack of suitable one bedroom accommodation in the local housing stock."
She said there were also wrap-around services funded by the Salvation Army that work with single men and help address their urgent need and underlying reasons they need help with.
"These include giving practical help, positive lifestyle programmes and financial literacy. Where children are at risk, there is a pressing need to provide housing."
Annamarie Angus, manager of the Tauranga Moana Night Shelter for men, says there is a combination of issues affecting those staying at the shelter and it is never one thing.
"A lot of these men aren't seen as a priority and so they go down on peoples' waiting lists. Adequate services with easy points of entry need to be in place far earlier than they are. We need to stop being the ambulance at the bottom of the hill and focus support at the front end," she said.
"I am quite sure, if this was brought down to dollars and cents, it would be cost effective in the long run."
The majority of men staying at the shelter needed help with mental health, addiction and trauma related issues, Ms Angus said.
"Trauma - nearly all of them. Mental health and addiction, a good number of them.
"It's too easy to blame our clients' situation on addiction, for example. Every man who has walked through our door has suffered significant loss, hurt, trauma, abandonment.
"Addiction is definitely not the underlying issue, it is how they manage their disconnection from their families and our society."
Tania Lewis-Rickard, who directs food charity Kai Aroha, said of the homeless people turning up every Friday night at two locations to get fed the majority were struggling with mental health issues.
"I can honestly say, hand on heart, 80 to 90 per cent of these people have mental issues - anxiety, the whole vulnerability thing, and I'm talking about people too who are actually medicated who are in the mental health system."
Tania Lewis-Rickard, who directs food charity Kai Aroha, said of the homeless people turning up every Friday night at two locations to get fed - the majority were struggling with mental health issues. Photo/file.
She said after talking with her Kai Aroha team, it was almost like they might need some mental health education and workshops to do their volunteer work.
"It's immense. It's not about just feeding the homeless, we're feeding their state of mind."
Liz Kite, who runs Under the Stars, said the number of homeless people with mental health issues that were coming to her meals, which now happen three times a week, had also grown.
She said they are being discriminated against and overlooked.
"I just think that there needs to be housing towards helping the mentally ill - specifically.
"Not big three bedroom houses . . . there needs to be just small little whares - they don't have to be big - with the essential needs, because council and government are overlooking this part of it."
Tommy Wilson from Te Tuinga Whanau Support Services Trust said the "streeties" in Tauranga have got layers of issues with mental health and that it was a mental health and district health board problem more than a housing problem.
"You can give these people the penthouse but until you fix up those mental health issues - you've got to address those first. Finding them somewhere to stay is not going to change their patterns of behaviour."
Ms Angus said people are far too easily ignored once they are on the streets.
"So what I think is, any support that is required for these people - who are always vulnerable and come with trauma - needs to start happening at the front end rather than the bottom end. Support needs to be in place for the long term.
"I think we need to just go back and support them or treat whatever needs treating, whether it is counselling . . . and it needs to be easy to access.
"Accessing the services that they need, whatever they are, is very red-taped."
