A car was removed from Saint Vincent Avenue following a death. Video / Michael Craig
Internal council documents reveal a string of administrative errors leading up to the death of a 72-year-old Auckland woman living in her car, including a team leader missing an urgent email for weeks while sick, and confusion over the definition of "homelessness".
Correspondence obtained by the Herald under the Official Information Act (OIA) reveals 151 pages of alarmed Auckland Council emails and reports in the days after pensioner Helena Wakefield was found dead in her car.
Much of the correspondence is elevated to Auckland Council's chief executive Jim Stabback who calls for "immediate actions... to mitigate the risk of anything similar occurring".
On July 7, Wakefield was found in her red Suzuki Swift hatchback on St Vincent Ave, Remuera, after spending months living on the streets in the same suburb where she grew up.
It subsequently emerged Wakefield had been evicted from the $1.2 million Remuera property she and her brother inherited following their mother's death in 2019.
Renovations have been done on 3/8 Dempsey Street, Remuera which was 72-year-old Helena Pauleen Wakefield's last known address. Photo / Dean Purcell
Wakefield is understood to have been the fulltime carer for her mother, whom she had lived with in the Dempsey St home since 2011. But following her mother's death, High Court documents show Wakefield refused to co-operate with her brother on executing their mother's will, and was eventually evicted by him in December 2021.
At the time of Wakefield's death, Auckland Council admitted in a statement they had been called several times by concerned residents about a woman living in her car, but had incorrectly categorised the incident as freedom camping. The incident was allegedly therefore not elevated to the urgency that a homeless person living in their car should be.
Stabback told the Herald Auckland Council had "thoroughly reviewed the council's involvement in this case" and made "necessary changes" to processes to ensure there is no future "room for error".
However, internal council correspondence of the breakdown in responding to the reports of someone living in their car reveal wide-reaching systematic failures.
Bev Calder-Myers lost contact with her friend Helena Wakefield a number of years ago. Helena Pauleen Wakefield was found dead on St Vincent Ave, Remuera, on July 7. Photo / Dean Purcell
Most glaring was the fact when the Auckland Council call centre received their fourth and fifth calls about Wakefield over the course of a few months on June 7 - the first three calls had been in May - the alert was redirected to sit in a team leader's inbox for "several weeks" while they were on sick leave.
The email that lay unattended in an inbox would have been during the final weeks of Wakefield's life.
The series of events is laid out in an Auckland Council report delivered to chief executive Stabback on July 8, the day after Wakefield was found.
"Two follow-up calls (20 minutes apart, on June 7) sought clarification on what action was being taken, asking to be connected to the council's compliance team, and for a confirmation email to be sent to them," the report states.
"During these calls, a phone referral to a compliance team leader was made. That team leader understood the call to be about freedom camping and redirected it to another, more appropriate, team leader.
"That second team leader was appropriately placed to help, however was on sick leave. The customer service representative (CSR) in the contact centre sent them a referral email, to which an out of office reply was received. No further action was taken by the CSR, and the team leader was unwell for several weeks and therefore did not receive the email."
Copy of a wedding photo from about 35 years ago of Helena Wakefield. Photo / Supplied
The out of office email the customer service representative received said: "Tena koe I am currently away on sick leave. I will respond to your email on my return. If your request is urgent please call 093010101."
However, Auckland Council general manager licensing and regulatory compliance James Hassall determines: "the person in the contact centre did nothing further".
In response to this error on July 8, a day after Wakefield's body was found, Auckland Council director of regulatory services Craig Hobbs announced in an email to concerned Auckland Councillors there would be immediate changes to council call centre worker procedures.
"As a first step and implemented from today, our call centre will ask anyone calling about homelessness or people living in vehicles if there is concern over the health and wellbeing of the individual concerned," Hobbs says.
An email from Hassall on July 8 to other senior council management also asks: "It might be that, where we have issues of camping/homelessness, we ask the question directly, "Is anyone's life in danger," or "Do you have concerns for anyone's health and safety" but I will leave that [to] the experts."
Police investigate the scene at Saint Vincent Avenue, Remuera, where a woman was found deceased in this red Suzuki Swift. Photo / Michael Craig
Stabback told the Herald yesterday that Auckland Council does not provide frontline support for those sleeping rough.
"Our compliance role sits within the very prescriptive boundaries of monitoring and enforcing bylaws," Stabback said.
"Nonetheless, we talk to each other and do our utmost to ensure cases that fall outside of a breach of the Public Safety and Nuisance or Freedom Camping bylaws, for example, get passed on to the community team or relevant outreach partner."
"With Ms Wakefield's case we encountered an unfortunate gap in our system which was compounded by a email not being responded to."
Auckland Council chief executive Jim Stabback. Photo / Supplied
In the days after Wakefield's death, council staff also emailed around the clear definitions of homelessness and freedom camping.
In the report to Stabback, Hobbs and customer and community services director Claudia Wyss conclude confusion over the distinction between these two classifications is actually built into the council's systems.
"Our contact centre processes do not sufficiently distinguish between freedom camping and rough sleeping/homelessness. A call about rough sleeping/homelessness currently links to freedom camping information and a compliance team referral," the report says.
"Because of a lack of distinguishment [sic] between rough sleeping and freedom camping, homelessness queries may not have the correct escalation band applied, which may impact timeliness of response."
However, there is further documentation passed around among Auckland Council staff that suggests a report of freedom camping should not necessarily be stood down. Rather, a reported freedom camping incident could be assigned an importance grading which would require a council dispatch team to attend the incident.
"There is a clear difference between freedom camping and homeless people in vehicles, which are a much higher risk as defined in the precursor description for the P1 and P2 categories," an email from council worker, whose name is redacted, says.
"Dispatch triage form - clearly states Freedom Camping is assigned P2 and not stood down along with Homelessness - assigned P2 and to go to Regional Compliance team.
"REMINDER: FLAG CHECKS MUST BE COMPLETED AND NOTED FOR EVERY JOB, NO EXCEPTIONS," the document says in red.
Pensioner Helena Wakefield's last known address was 3/8 Dempsey Street, Remuera. She was 72 when she died in her car nearby. Photo / Dean Purcell
The email also notes that between December 2021 and July 2022 the council had 523 complaints about freedom camping, 245 of which were allocated dispatch officers.
As part of the response to the OIA request, the Herald has access to the actual call centre log of the report of Wakefield living in her car on St Vincent Ave.
It is clear that the call centre worker who has lodged the item does not realise the above detail - that freedom camping does not include people living in their vehicles.
The log on May 23 identifies the person who is Wakefield as "freedom camping in their vehicle for multiple weeks now" and also "a woman is sleeping and living in her car outside this address".
Despite the address clearly being a suburban Remuera street, the log is nevertheless "job stood down as per compliance P3/4 guidelines".
In the July 8 report to Stabback, it is also actioned that Auckland Council will: "Review all cases from the last 30 days coded to Freedom Camping and/or Homelessness to confirm that there are no other potential similar cases in our Systems."
Stabback assured the Herald: "There is not widespread confusion at Auckland Council about the definitions of homelessness and freedom camping."
"Our review showed where we can more clearly identify whether a case of a person living in a vehicle is homeless or is freedom camping [and] determining any next steps," Stabback said.
"Appropriate changes have been made, including all complaints about freedom camping being responded to by a council compliance officer, in person."
Stabback pointed out Auckland Council was not the only organisation contacted about Wakefield, and council documents also report a St Vincent Ave resident called police four times through their 105 number.
Another issue identified by Auckland Council staff in the days after Wakefield's death was that their homelessness report inbox is not monitored 24 hours a day.
Police investigate the scene at Saint Vincent Avenue Remuera where a woman was found deceased in a red Suzuki Swift. Photo / Michael Craig
One council response determines: "we will sort it out asap but at this point I have no intention of changing the on-call to attend a complaint about a homeless person – we only have 3 people on and they are stretched to the max as it is. We will need to come up with a process that fits both what we do, what the outreach team does and what the Police or other agencies do."
Yet, council confirmed to the Herald yesterday their homelessness inbox will still only be monitored during business hours.
In contrast to council's series of errors, Auckland City Mission quickly responded in person to a report of Wakefield living in her car on St Vincent Ave on July 7 - but it was too late.
"Our people carry out their work to keep Aucklanders safe and when a gap in our systems results in a tragic outcome, like this one, they are significantly impacted. We are extremely saddened by the loss of Ms Wakefield and hope we have made all the necessary changes to strengthen our systems," Stabback said.
Brother's pain
On news of his sister's lonely death, Australia-based Larry Wakefield provided the Herald with a statement clarifying his actions.
"This is an extremely distressing time for me," Wakefield said via his lawyer.
"Despite every effort the private investigator was unable to find Helena before she passed away last week. I cannot understand why no action was taken until now after local residents expressed concerns and alerted authorities."
Correspondence obtained under the Official Information Act reveal 151 pages of alarmed Auckland Council emails and reports after pensioner Helena Wakefield was found dead. Photo / Michael Craig
Larry Wakefield said when their mother died, her property in Remuera had to be sold and the proceeds split between the siblings.
"Mum passed away in May 2019 and Helena left the property in December 2021. Helena was offered six months rent, and when she left the property, offered hotel accommodation, until she got her half share. She did not take up these offers."
Wakefield said after his sister left the Dempsey St home he became concerned about her welfare and took action to track her down.
He was unsure if she was even still in New Zealand or had returned to Australia where she had lived in the past.
