The government statement on Friday said it was taking \u201cimmediate action\u201d to support people living without shelter, and conceded \u201cthere continues to be a large and growing number of people\u201d in the predicament.<\/p>\n
Minister of Housing Chris Bishop and Associate Minister Tama Potaka said that, in addition to existing services, $17m would be committed to support the homeless and services around them.<\/p>\n
It comprises $7m in support for social housing for those on the Housing First programme, and, working through existing service providers, up to $10m for the services dealing with people who are \u201csleeping rough\u201d.<\/p>\n
Cleary said that at Monday\u2019s meeting with MP Nimon, during which a group of homeless and supporters gathered outside her office near the square, an offer was made to encourage a government minister\u2019s visit to the shelter, to \u201csee what we are doing\u201d.<\/p>\n
Nimon told Hawke\u2019s Bay Today the meeting was \u201cextremely constructive and positive\u201d, discussing the \u201csuccess\u201d of \u0100huru M\u014dwai and the closure of the Homeless Outreach Centre.<\/p>\n
The Outreach had been run by service provider Whatever it Takes (WIT), which is also a partner in the founding of the new shelter in Hastings St.<\/p>\n
The Outreach had been run at a property leased from K\u0101inga Ora, but ceased due to increased cost and a lack of funding.<\/p>\n
Nimon said it was important to clarify the closure was not connected to the opening of the new night shelter.<\/p>\n
She said it was \u201cunfortunate that a political stunt\u201d was staged outside the office during the meeting, because it \u201cdetracted from the positive discussions taking place\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said on Friday: \u201cI\u2019ve written to Ministers Bishop and Potaka following the meeting with the Napier Ahuriri Homeless Society and invited them to visit Ahuru M\u014dwai in Napier.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thank the ministers for taking action on this issue and for their commitment to delivering the right homes, in the right places, with the right supports for rough sleepers,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d be thrilled to welcome them and show first-hand the challenges we\u2019re facing with homelessness \u2013 and the incredible work being done by the society.\u201d<\/p>\n
The shelter trust received Napier City Council and charitable trust funding, having already raised more than $50,000 since being formed in February.<\/p>\n
But Cleary said the Government\u2019s support is needed for the sustainability to support projects dealing with homelessness.<\/p>\n
WIT chief executive Sam Aberahama, who also hadn\u2019t heard of the announcement, said he\u2019d drafted an invitation to Potaka to visit the shelter.<\/p>\n
Doug Laing has been a reporter for 52 years, more than 40 of them in Hawke\u2019s Bay, at the Central Hawke\u2019s Bay Press, the Napier Daily Telegraph, and Hawke\u2019s Bay Today. He has covered most aspects of general news and sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The government statement on Friday said it was taking \u201cimmediate action\u201d to support people living without shelter, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9442,6636,9436,9439,9435,738,266,681,9437,9440,120,9441,3607,117,111,43,139,2551,69,9443,1321,9434,1886,1361,61,9438],"class_list":["post-7270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-better","tag-challenge","tag-chase","tag-established","tag-expects","tag-funding","tag-government","tag-homeless","tag-homelessness","tag-huru","tag-likely","tag-mwai","tag-napier","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-night","tag-nz","tag-provinces","tag-services","tag-shelter","tag-support","tag-that","tag-to","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}