A place at last - now for a job

Graham Burns uses a trailer to carry his groceries from the supermarket. Picture / Jason Oxenham

Graham Burns has got his own house for the first time at the age of 49.

Taken from his mother when he was 2, he lived in foster homes as a child and spent most of his adult life roaming New Zealand and Australia, living in boarding houses and on the streets.

"I really started living on the streets at about 22," he said. "Then I got into trouble."

He hasn't seen his mother since the day, 47 years ago, when child welfare officers took him away from the motor camp in Oamaru where his mother lived while working two jobs to support him.

"She tried to get me back quite a few times. I don't know why that wasn't granted."

After "bouncing around" foster homes, he was taken in by an Invercargill couple who cared for him from the age of 7. But he never really settled.

"When I was at school they found out I had ADD [attention deficit disorder]," he said. "They couldn't work out why I was so slow at school. They put it down to the way I was treated as a child."

After school he got a place on a temporary work scheme on a farm, but started "mixing with the wrong crowd".

"I started getting into trouble at an early age," he said. Apart from two months on remand in Mt Eden Prison he has stayed out of jail, but has a record which has made it hard for him to find work.

Three weeks ago, with help from the Lifewise social agency, he finally got a Housing NZ flat in Parnell - the first home he has had to himself.

He has rigged up a trailer for his bike so he can carry groceries from the supermarket.

Lifewise furnished the flat with donated furniture, and support worker Shane Unuwai keeps in touch several times a week.

The next step is a job. Mr Burns has a high-vis vest and work boots and is ready.

"I really need a job," he said. "Any sort of job actually, even if it's emptying rubbish bins on the back of a rubbish truck, I'd jump at it." Simon Collins