Soup kitchen couple in race against time

It's an icy June evening and the Swannell family are warming the stomachs of people on the street - but in the back of their minds is a "ticking time bomb".

Kevin and Kiri, who run a mobile soup kitchen from Napier's Clive Square every Monday night, have only a few weeks to move a two-storey building donated by Property Brokers for use as Hawke's Bay's first emergency shelter from the plot where it stands on St Aubyn St in Hastings to a yet unknown location.

Finding a piece of suitable land and a way to move that house were the most pressing problems facing their project, aptly named Limitless Hope.

The vision is to provide a safe haven for those in desperate need of a place to stay overnight before working with them to find a more permanent solution.

It will be a non-judgmental service which never sleeps - 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"The ticking time bomb at the moment is where to put it and how to get it there, I'm hoping the mayors will come through with something and we will know where we stand at the end of the week," Ms Swannell says.

"The huge thing is land and removers, whatever we can get, whether it's someone who can offer a discount or any suggestions of who we can approach - it's hard for the remover to give us a quote when we don't know where they will be going to."

A donation to their Givealittle page - big or small - would go towards costs associated with shifting.

But if they don't reach a $100,000 target by the end of July they won't get a cent of the $10,000 which people have already pledged.

"If we don't hit that everyone gets their money back, and we get nothing," Ms Swannell says.

Hawke's Bay Today has launched a campaign, Limitless Hope Emergency Shelter Appeal, to back the worthy cause and ensure the Swannells get what they need to help others.

Media attention has drummed up some support with offers from Pritchard Plumbing to "assist somehow" and a few registered builders offering their services but with so much work to be done the list needs to keep growing. Once relocated, they will totally refit the building with electrics, with big plans for a commercial kitchen, where food can be prepared for the soup kitchen and cooking lessons held. Outside, landscaping and fencing must be done. Emails went out to schools at the weekend to see if they would be interested in holding a mufti day or coin trail on their behalf, and they are open to any businesses who wish to run fundraisers.

They are currently working on a business plan which will offer solutions to some of the situations they may face once the shelter doors are open. For instance, how and where they would place a single male if they already had a family sleeping there.

"We will need to install cameras and we have been discussing scenarios - that's why we want a good-sized property so we can possibly add on some portable units, Ms Swannell said.

"If it's a man that phones in the middle of the night - it's Kevin who will get out of bed, if it's a woman, I will."

-For more information, search the key words "Limitless Hope" on Facebook. To donate funds for the building's relocation, visit https://givealittle.co.nz/project/limitlesshope.