Taupō Quay homeless hub scrapped as Whanganui District Council diverts funding services

The council has spent $44,000 on the site so far. Photo / Bevan Conley

The Taupō Quay homeless hub will be scrapped after Whanganui district councillors voted unanimously to divert funding to other homeless support services.

Council chief executive David Langford said the site was always intended to be a temporary measure - to bridge the time it took to come up with a long-term solution.

In September, he “vigorously” defended the progress made on the hub, which didn’t yet have resource or building consent or services.

Resource consent had been granted, but the council was still waiting for building consent before Wednesday’s council meeting.

At the meeting, Langford said work on a longer-term solution had been completed much more quickly than the 18-24 months expected, mostly because a “brick-and-mortar solution is not what our community needs”, he said.

A report from consultancy firm WSP, paid for by central government “Better Off” funding, recommended reinvesting funds to provide ongoing wrap-around support services.

“That’s the more effective path to getting people out of their cars, out of tents and into housing,” Langford told the council.

“We need greater co-ordination between Government agencies responsible for housing and homelessness and our NGO (non-governmental organisation) sector.

“There is a role for [the] council to play as a facilitator and supporter in that process.”

WSP’s report said although building a permanent hub - bricks and mortar - would be beneficial in the long run, it believed there was existing and adequate capability within the existing fabric of the city.

Any council funding would be best invested into enabling existing providers.

Wrap-around services provided by the Whanganui People’s Centre on behalf of the council had been “very effective, very quickly” in getting 12 people and families into private accommodation, Langford said.

“We can avoid spending a lot of the unbudgeted expenditure that was put aside to cover the running costs of Taupō Quay.”

The Chronicle reported in September that the council was awaiting consent sign-off on two containers - one fitted out as an ablution block with accessible toilets and showers with hot water, and a portacom with a kitchenette and office space - before they could be moved to the site.

Whanganui District Council chief executive David Langford. Photo / Bevan Conley

The council had expected the Taupō Quay site to cost ratepayers around $173,000 over its first 18 months of operations.

The decision to set it up was made in February, with $44,000 being spent so far.

That had not been wasted, Langford said.

“The portacom, the toilets, all those sorts of things are going to continue to get used by some of our partner agencies and NGOs to support homelessness.”

Council community wellbeing manager Lauren Tamehana said more homeless people were using Whanganui’s freedom camping areas - “unfortunately, a sign of the times”.

However, more were also moving into accommodation.

Infrastructure destined for Taupō Quay would likely be used by church groups which had programmes in place, and Armourguard would continue to monitor existing freedom camping sites, she said.

Antisocial behaviour had been greatly reduced as a result of the random security checks.

Councillor Michael Law said the council had identified a problem, enacted a solution and “got grief” for it.

Council officers continued to get better results and should be applauded for it, he said.

“The fact we don’t have to go to bricks and mortar and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars - I’m very happy about that.

“It means we are an enabler [in ensuring] our people are homed and safe in a secure environment.”

Tamehana said the council’s current freedom camping bylaw didn’t have a detrimental effect on the homeless.

“If they are registered with MSD [the Ministry for Social Development] and on the housing register, then the People’s Centre will know that.

“If we’ve got people refusing to be registered, and some people don’t want to be registered, then they are handed over to [council] compliance as a freedom camper.”

That approach would continue, she said.

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multi-media journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present, his focus is local government, primarily Whanganui District Council.