Thanks to financial donations from the community, almost two weeks ago the family were able to move into the motel. It is their home - for now.
The family moved to the Bay from Whangarei in search of a better life.
They had heard about job opportunities here. But they didn't know about the severe rental shortage - resulting in them spending weeks living in their car, while trying to find a proper home.
There are fair and obvious questions: Why had they not found a home before they moved here? Why did they not simply go back to Whangarei?
Chardonnay's parents told us they had moved to escape a "negative environment" and did not want to go back.
They had assumed the rental market would be similar to their hometown and were shocked by both the price and the shortage of rentals in the Bay. They ended up homeless.
Roger Taylor, chief executive of the Western Bay Primary Health Organisation, describes the homeless situation as "diabolical".
"What happened to the Kiwi psyche that we allow this?" he asks. "To what degree are we not showing an interest in the children of this bloody country? Where is the level of disgust that as a country we have allowed this to emerge?"
His questions are sobering. It's easy if you own a home, have a job, and some material wealth to view those who do not as less motivated, less ambitious and, ultimately, less deserving than those who do.
It is easy to write them off and say it is not our problem. But some people simply fall on hard times.
I don't believe that in a fair society this should be so. But I do believe that we all have a social and moral obligation to help fix the problem, which left unchecked has the potential to mushroom.
The good news is that something is being done to address the problem in the Western Bay.
Te Tuinga Whanau Support Services director Tommy Wilson last week launched the Whare 4 Whanau project in which struggling families are to be housed in a central city building offered by the Tauranga Moana Maori Trust.
The Government last month announced about 60 emergency housing places could be made available in the Bay of Plenty as part of $41 million of new funding across New Zealand announced in the Budget but more investment is needed, now, not some time in the future. Ignoring, or minimising, this problem is no longer an option.
- Tai Tokerau Emergency Housing opened a three-bedroom home in Morningside last week. The $41 million in the budget will result in 20 extra emergency housing beds in Northland.
