A group rallied outside the former Laura Fergusson Trust building yesterday, urging any buyer to restore it as a disabled facility. Photo / Supplied
A group rallied outside the former Laura Fergusson Trust building yesterday, urging any buyer to restore it as a disabled facility. Photo / Supplied
The former home of a disability facility in Auckland that was controversially sold last year is back on the market.
And disability advocates are urging the former owner and the Government to buy it back and return the site to disabled Aucklanders.
A 100-person rally was held outside the former Laura Fergusson Trust building on Great South Rd in Greenlane yesterday.
Expressions of interest for the 1.5ha property close on Thursday, and advocates were urging any prospective purchasers to restore it to its previous use as a respite and rehabilitation centre.
“The land was bought and the buildings were built for the disabled,” said Friends of Laura Fergusson chair Victoria Carter.
“Every day that we don’t have a facility in Auckland for disabled people to be able to use after a life-changing accident, it is cheating them out of having a decent chance of rehabilitation.”
The property was sold by the Laura Fergusson Trust last year to a developer who had planned to build 240 apartments on the land. Those plans have been put on hold and it is now publicly listed for sale and being promoted as a site for redevelopment.
The property sold for a reported $49.5m last year. Bayleys agent Layne Harwood said there had been several inquiries about possible uses for the site, including from people within the disability sector who had discussed restoring the existing facilities.
A group rallied outside the former Laura Fergusson Trust building yesterday, urging any buyer to restore it as a disabled facility. Photo / Supplied
Act MP for Epsom David Seymour said the trust board should buy the property back “as a cash buyer in a sinking market”. If that was not possible, the Government should purchase the site, he said.
“There are 40 units that could house disabled people right now,” Seymour said. “The specialist gym and hydrotherapy pool could be reopened for the disabled community again.”
The Laura Fergusson Trust board ruled out reacquiring the property today, saying it still believed it would not be possible to run the facility sustainably.
“It is time for LFT Auckland to move forward and focus on serving the disability community in a way that is financially sustainable and aligned with the Government’s disability sector transformation,” chairman Chris O’Brien said.
The trust said last year that Crown agency health policies were increasingly focused on caring for people within their own homes or communities rather than in a centralised facility.
It has previously blamed disability funding models for its financial position, saying that funding was provided based on a needs assessment in advance of treatment, yet services that were actually required were much greater.
On its website, the trust said it was using the capital from the sale of the Epsom property to invest in new initiatives that benefit disabled people - including a partnership with Autism NZ to encourage early detection of developmental disorders in children.
Advocates felt the trust had strayed from its original purpose to support the disabled and were disappointed that a property that was largely purchased and developed through fundraising had been sold.
A group has taken legal action against the trust, alleging that it had breached its core purpose and had blocked up to 80 people from gaining membership after it had closed the facility. That case is ongoing.
Carter said there was a dire shortage of homes and respite care for disabled people in New Zealand’s biggest city.
Former Jockey Sophia Malthus became was tetraplegic after being injured in a riding accident. She stayed at the Greenlane rehab facility for nine months. Photo / Dean Purcell.
Sophia Malthus, who was paralysed after falling from a horse, spent nine months at Laura Fergusson. She said people who had life-changing accidents were now going from a spinal unit into rest homes.
“They won’t get the skilled and specific rehabilitation or OT support that LFT used to offer,” she said.
Data released by Health Minister Andrew Little’s office showed 10 young people had been placed in rest homes in the last year after suffering life-changing injuries.
