Rupert D'Arth is among 80 residents of Auckland City Mission apartment block, Te Ao Marama, on a side street in the city's red light district near Karangahape Road.

He was at a recent community hui where locals raised concerns about crime and pointed fingers at the place where he lives.

"There's always been violence, there's always been drugs, all that stuff on K' Road," D'Arth said.

"It's not Ponsonby Road, it's different, it has more flair and colour if you want to say it that way, instead of violence and crime." Read more

The initiative was held at St Matthew-in-the-City, and the event aimed to assist those facing homelessness and food challenges.

Morgan McCann, Head of New World for Foodstuffs North Island, and Steve McClean, Owner Operator of New World Orewa, cooked a three-course dinner for 150 guests at St Matthew-in-the-City.

The duo, with community support, raised over $57,000 specifically for the Auckland City Mission.

The entire Cook Off event contributed a commendable $246,000 to the Mission's cause.

"The Mission can only help people in greatest need with the support of our community.

"Morgan and Steve's commitment to raising funds through the Cook-Off and their ongoing support of the Mission are outstanding. I'm so grateful to the two of them for stepping up to help in this way," says Missioner Helen Robinson.

McCann who had never cooked for 150 people before, said he initially found the experience rather daunting.

However, by the end of the night and by working alongside renowned chefs Petra Galler, Michael Meredith and Mike Van de Elzen, he'd gained newfound insight into the work of a chef.

More familiar with cooking for groups, McClean, who enjoys giving back and supporting the local community described the experience as "truly humbling'.

Foodstuffs is the co-operative behind PAK'nSAVE, New World, and Four Square supermarkets in the North Island.

Source: Scoop

Men seem particularly vulnerable to housing insecurity, says Greg, a peer support worker with Lifewise, who works with men experiencing homelessness.

He told RNZ's The Detail they're often facing a web of other personal challenges.

Thinking of the people he works with now, Greg says there are a lot of reasons men find themselves without a stable home.

"Some grew up in boys' homes; some hospitals, through mental health.

"Others have had such bad home lives that they just came straight out on the streets when they were young and never left.

"Some have just been in and out of prison their whole lives because they didn't know any other way, and that's what they saw around them, so that's what they did.

"There's not one reason. There are all sorts of different reasons...and trying to unpack that is the hard part," he says.

HomeGround, the Auckland City Mission's Hobson Street facility, aims to accommodate those in acute need of housing while also tackling the drivers of homelessness through wraparound support.

Auckland City Missioner, Helen Robinson reinforces men's housing insecurity saying around 70% of the people coming through the doors at HomeGround are men.

However, Robinson says the tragedy at Loafers Lodge is symptomatic of a broader problem.

It's about having the means to help.

"Despite there being a large number of community groups across the country designed to provide care and services for vulnerable people, the funding and coordination of services isn't there," Robinson says.

"I think what something like Loafers Lodge is showing is that that support is not rocket science, we just have to acknowledge that people need it.

"New Zealand is learning how possible it is to support people, but actually that it's difficult, and it's time-consuming, and it does require resource to do it."

Robinson says the tragedy is symptomatic of a broader problem.

"It's important to acknowledge the failure of New Zealand for 40 years to actually create enough good housing that's appropriate, that's affordable, for us all," she says.

She lists poverty, trauma, violence and relationship breakdown as causing homelessness.

Source

• RNZ

Working families are among the growing number lining up for help as the cost of living and inflation bubble upwards.

Food shortages are hitting food banks too.

Like "Mother Hubbard", who went to the cupboard, North Island foodbank staff are finding bare pantries.

People are generous but can't afford to donate as they did in the past - they just don't have the means.

Less food, fewer parcels

Aotearoa Food Parcel Measure indicates that the nationwide number of food parcels distributed in March was 3422 fewer than at the start of the year.

"We're having to really tighten the budget and be really careful with our purchasing, we're mindful that we're in a position of reasonable stability for a charitable organisation," says Tauranga Community Foodbank manager Nicki Goodwin.

Urban marae are also trying to fill their communities' pantries. They are cash-strapped too.

Papakura Marae's Tony Kake says his marae's foodbank is struggling to feed everyone asking for help. They give out about 300 food parcels per week. About 75 percent of the whanau they help are regulars - but anyone who needs help is welcome, he says.

Where to from here?

Any idea that last week's budget would help has died.

In a statement commenting on the 2023 Budget, the Auckland Catholic Diocese Justice and Peace Commission says there is little bread-and-butter support for those in most need and very little to alleviate intergenerational family poverty.

The Commission said that implementing the May 2019 Welfare Expert Advisory Group's key recommendation to substantially increase basic Social Welfare payments so that families can support themselves continues to be ignored.

"And the promised relief for families in the face of rising costs seems to be completely missing in action.

"What sort of society are we when 71 billion dollars can be found for very necessary infrastructure but only scraps of funding for families who are so overwhelmed by rising food and rent costs, they are being forced to choose between paying the rent to avoid homelessness and feeding hungry children?"

The Commission thinks a more focused approach to providing support would help.

There needs to be a solid plan in place, moving ahead, "rather than just a reactive, here's an extra $10 a week" the Commission said.

Helen Robinson, Chair of Kore Hiakai Zero Hunger Collective and Manutaki at the Auckland City Mission, says local government and local food plans need to be at the heart of the response, while being connected to a National Food Strategy.

This would mean our domestic and export food systems are in concert with each other.

Robinson's basing her views on a report the Collective has just released. Called 'Realising Food Secure Communities in Aotearoa: a review of locally led reports, plans and strategies', it shows us that we know how to do this, and that we can, she says.

It spotlight ways mana whenua, local communities, councils and central government can work together.

When working in partnership, together we can build food secure communities, Robinson says.

Source

• RNZ
• NZ Herald
• Voxy
• Supplied - Justice and Peace Commission

"The more hungry we are, the more we will see unrest," says Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson.

"Thousands and thousands of us just don't have enough money for food."

She should know. Over the past 10 years, demand for City Mission food parcels has risen each year.

"It's gone from 9,000 to 65,000. That's a huge number of people suffering food insecurity.

"Food prices rose 12 percent in the year to April. That's the largest increase since 1987."

Robinson had hoped last week's Budget might help.

So had Susan St John, economist and Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) spokesperson.

It didn't.

CPAGs view

The Budget is policy makers' biggest opportunity, says St John. They can change the systems that lock whanau into poverty. They can also opt to keep the status quo.

"Budget 2023 was short-sighted," she says.

"It didn't give money to families struggling to meet basic living costs. It's terrifying it didn't address food insecurity's rise.

"This budget should have delivered a reformed and effective Working for Families.

"It is tiresome to hear that 'allowing low-income families to have sufficient income to feed their families would be inflationary'. It would not - in fact, it would make the economy work better," the economist says.

"Poverty is stealing families' dreams and there was little in the Budget to change this."

Changing policies can work

St John's recommendations to immediately alleviate the problem involve two things:

• The in-work tax credit (IWTC) being folded into the Family Tax Credit, to form one payment for all low-income children.

This would be a targeted and very efficient way to reduce child poverty, she says. It offers a higher level of support only to those who currently do not get the IWTC.

St John says it would cost about $500m per year.

Her other suggestion addresses poverty traps for middle- and low-income families in paid work:

• income assistance abatement thresholds must be raised and rates of abatement cut from 27 percent to 20 percent.

At present they face impossible "clawbacks", she says.

For each dollar they earn over a very low threshold, they may receive only a few cents. This is because income assistance abates (reduces) so quickly in several domains that it keeps them in poverty traps.

Victoria University's Kate Prickett is also concerned about the Budget's failure to make systematic changes for families.

She's the Director of the Roy McKenzie Centre for the Study of Families and Children.

Targets to lift children out of poverty aren't being met, Prickett says.

"We're not going to make further dents in child poverty without implementing bold support for those families being left behind."

She suggests helping:

• working families teetering on the poverty line
• Pacific families who may be less likely to qualify for support because they don't have residency status, despite contributing to the economy and their communities
• families unable to work, or whose work may be limited due to care needs (eg for whanau with disabilities)

This week's Budget feels woefully inadequate, she says.

Source

• 1News
• The Spinoff
• RNZ
• Voxy

These streets are where hundreds of vulnerable people live - and die. A disproportionate number are Maori.

Homelessness is a terrible situation, says Helen Robinson. It can take up to 30 years off someone's life. It affects everything: physical, mental and spiritual well-being.

"It affects us on every level of our being from practical, where do you wash yourself or put your clothes, to not feeling safe.

"Imagine what it's like for every moment of every day to have no place to know you are safe."

At Home Ground, the Mission's central Auckland shelter, street community members die at age 50 on average. That's 30 years earlier than the national average lifespan.

They struggle to cultivate and maintain relationships and employment; they battle drug and alcohol abuse and neglect health.

There's nowhere near enough money or resources to help.

One in six New Zealanders needs help with these issues.

We're all just two or three life events away from that reality.

Revolting racism

"I am incredibly conscious we are seeing the impact of colonisation," Robinson says. It's "deeply incumbent" on her to "mirror the impact," she adds.

"When you strip people of their land and resources, this is the result.

"We all need to see the truth, and we need to continually call our country to account.

"The level of racism I sometimes see is revolting, but more and more New Zealanders are coming to understand the harm that has occurred."

Maori women are among the most vulnerable members of our community, Robinson says.

"They have been silenced and marginalised like no other group in our society. There is a real challenge to be appropriately responding to the needs of people, particularly Maori.

"We need to make sure they feel connected, comfortable and welcome."

Help needed

Robinson says the need she sees at Home Ground is far greater than the Mission can meet.

Working people and the unemployed are suffering. They're homeless. Hungry. There's only so much in a weekly budget.

"Many New Zealanders simply don't have enough money for food," Robinson says.

The Mission provides about three million meals a year.

Christmas

Last year the Mission delivered 10,000 food parcels and 40,000 gifts for tamariki in the weeks leading to Christmas.

Robinson's anticipating an even greater need in 2022 and is relying on the community to fill it.

"Food and toy donations are absolute gold at Christmas.

"We know where the need is greatest, whether its baked beans or a pavlova," a Mission staff member comments.

Get real

While, as a country, we have much to be proud of, there's a lot that we need to address, says Robinson.

"We need to be brave ... acknowledging the number of people that are homeless and hungry.

"Women are bearing that burden. We desperately need to have those honest conversations. What does it mean to use alcohol safely? The significance, impact and amount of domestic violence. It's just too much. The only way out is if everyone is talking about this."

Source

• RNZ

Called HomeGround, Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson (pictured at the new facility) says its new one-stop health and social services space for the city's most vulnerable people realises a long-held dream for Te Tapui Atawhai.

Purpose-built to Te Tapui Atawhai's specifications, the nine-storey building has a health centre, a pharmacy, a community dining room, specialist detox services and 80 apartments.

"We can begin to do what we have longed to do, in the manner in which we have longed to do it, with the resources to support us" Robinson says.

"HomeGround makes so much more possible, we can do more and better".

For many people moving into HomeGround, this will be their first permanent home for a long time, Robinson says.

Residents will pay rent for their accommodation to the City Mission which is a community housing provider.

Besides providing a safe, private, secure place to live and sleep, the apartments include a fridge, washing machine, dryer, shower and kitchen.

"When there is that deep sense of safety, we can rest as human beings and begin to be our best selves, we can begin to address the challenges in front of us and even begin to thrive".

Residents will also have access to a communal lounge and a rooftop garden, which Robinson hopes will help build a real sense of community.

Robinson says that people who are going through medical or social detox at HomeGround can easily access its on-site health centre and pharmacy. These amenities, along with other support Te Tapui Atawhai offers, ensure they benefit from a much more integrated service.

In addition to general residential accommodation, HomeGround has 25 beds available for addiction withdrawal services.

Demand for the Auckland City Mission's services has ramped up dramatically since the pandemic began.

"The increase in the demand for food in the time I've been at the mission, which is just on nine years, is extraordinary" Robinson says.

"It's deeply, deeply distressing the numbers of people [coming in] for food".

She says there are "hundreds of thousands" of people without money "to buy enough good kai for their families.

"It is reprehensible and should never, ever be occurring - certainly not in Aotearoa".

Robinson worries about Omicron's impact on those in the most desperate need - on their jobs, access to good food and increasing numbers of sick people.

"People who are vulnerably housed, in boarding houses or motels are of particular concern, especially if they become ill" she says.

Being unwell for them is "incredibly difficult".

Despite the negatives, Robinson remains optimistic - and the Auckland City Mission is better placed than ever to help the people coming through its doors, she says.

Source

• RNZ
• Image: Stuff

Advocates for Auckland Action Against Poverty (AAAP) and beneficiaries using their services say the support offered this year did not match that of the first lockdown.

Just surviving is a struggle that is seeing the demand for the Auckland City Mission's services soar. The Mission says people seeking help over the past three months has been the highest in its 100-year history.

It is currently distributing more than 1600 food parcels every week, more than double what was being given out pre-Covid-19.

Missioner Helen Robinson says the demand shows how many people were living without enough money for food.

"We're conscious of people particularly who are on casual labour or even on contracts, people who have been receiving the wage subsidy gratefully - but if their rent or mortgage payments constitute a significant part of that, then what's left over is very, very limited."

With Christmas coming, the Mission's worried it won't be able to provide up to 9000 boxes of food and tens of thousands of presents for families who will otherwise go without this festive season.

The Mission is hoping for supplementary help from the public in the form of donated food and gifts, as demand this year is likely to be higher than the Mission itself can supply, Robinson says.

"In fact, we've been doing the most of what we can do for the last three months so this planning for Christmas is truly kind of the last draw of breath that the Mission can give this year to respond to the level of need," she explains.

An AAAP advocate says the people they worked with "just wanted money for food".

Scraping money together for kai often means falling behind on power, internet and water bills.

The advocate also says people saw getting a loan from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) for clothes and household appliances as too hard during lockdown. They are just trying to survive by whatever means they can.

"I suspect that in some cases people have also found other ways of getting the money needed to survive such as allowing their school-age children to get part-time work," the advocate suggests.

They feel the ministry workers are being "far less generous-spirited" than in last year's lockdown.

"The response from MSD just seems to show a total failure to comprehend the enormity and seriousness of this pandemic and the problems it is causing for the very poorest members of society."

The MSD refutes this, saying client surveys show "high levels of satisfaction" with the Ministry's service, with 93 percent of applications for food grants approved last month.

Source

• RNZ
• Stuff
• Image: The Spinoff

Helen Robinson, who is stepping up to the post from her role as Auckland City Mission's social services general manager, will start her new role this month.

Robinson's experience includes working with Catholic youth development organisation The Logos Project and with Challenge 2000.

Her appointment comes ahead of the departure of the current City Missioner, Chris Farrelly, who has held the position for the last five years.

In appointing a new missioner, the City Mission's board was clear that they needed to find a successor who would continue with the transformational work Farrelly started.

This includes the HomeGround precinct, due to open later this year. The precinct is described as a purpose-built place of healing and transformation, featuring apartments for people experiencing homelessness, community spaces and a health centre.

"Helen brings to the role a deep knowledge of the mission's work, and an even deeper commitment to a more equitable world, cemented by a strong background in social services," says City Mission board chair Joanna Pidgeon.

"Helen will be familiar to the Mission whanau whanui as she ... has been an employee for almost a decade."

Pidgeon says Robinson has "a deep knowledge of the Mission's work and an even deeper commitment to a more equitable world, cemented by a strong background in social services."

Among her projects, she oversaw the development of services to include a Housing First programme and opened two transitional housing programmes, one specifically for women.

She has also led significant improvements in all services to provide a dignified experience for people needing the mission's support.

For the four years prior to becoming general manager of social services, Robinson held leadership roles in the Mission's homelessness and food security teams.

Her commitment to resolving food insecurity releasing research into the topic, chairing the creation and implementation of Kore Hiakai, the national collective working towards a food-secure Aotearoa.

Outgoing Auckland City Missioner Chris Farrelly says the city mission has strong links with the Catholic Church, and Catholic Social teaching.

"In my time as missioner, I have been aware of the huge support we receive from a number of parishes, schools and other Church-affiliated organisations," he says.

"A large number of our clients, volunteers, donors and staff come from a Catholic tradition; we are privileged to have two religious sisters on our staff ... a number of priests and seminarians, (and bishops) have worked here as volunteers, and a former missioner ... is a Catholic priest.

"We have a strong working relationship with St Vincent de Paul, and Monte Cecilia Housing Trust. The city mission, along with the Catholic diocese ... is one of the founders and trustees of the James Liston Hostel, and the city mission operates the hostel on behalf of the Trust.

"In summary, we are family."

Source

• Scoop
• NZ Catholic
• Image: NZ Catholic

Food insecurity, or food poverty, is defined as not having enough appropriate food.

The City Mission says information about food insecurity in New Zealand is outdated and sparse.

But research led by the mission's general manager of social services, Helen Robinson, estimates about 10 per cent of the population is experiencing food insecurity.

The survey involved 650 people who had accessed the organisation's foodbank.

19 per cent of children live in families which lack food security

A 2019 New Zealand Health Survey estimate indicated that although the majority of children live in food-secure households, many New Zealand children do not.

In 2015/16, almost one in five children (19.0%) lived in households with severe to moderate food insecurity.

Women, Maori and Pasifika

Predominantly, women were the face of food insecurity and were bearing the greatest burden of poverty.

Maori and Pasifika people were also over-represented amongst those living with food insecurity, the City Mission said.

The research found that nearly 40 per cent of those surveyed have struggled to access enough appropriate food for themselves and their household for two years or more.

People who didn't have enough food were more likely to be emotionally unwell and were distressed some of the time.

Linked to poverty

The City Mission said food insecurity is linked to poverty.

Once housing costs were paid, low-income individuals and families were often forced to choose between buying food and other essential costs.

When there wasn't enough money for food, people either ate poorly or missed meals completely.

The City Mission has called for action

• Hold an annual survey to gather information about how adults and children are affected by food insecurity
• Develop a national food strategy giving vision and direction, cohesion and coordination to ensure everyone has enough appropriate food
• Consider women-oriented interventions, such as raising the level of the sole parent support payment, and providing further financial assistance to women raising children
• Raise income levels.

Click here to donate to Auckland City Mission

Source

• rnz.co.nz
• health.govt.nz
• Image: aucklandcitymission.org.nz

Its Social Services general manager Helen Robinson (pictured above) said that, for many families, once they had paid rent, debts, power, transport and medical costs, there was little left to spend on food.

Robinson said that an economist's assessment found that a family of three supported by a single breadwinner working a 40-hour week on pay just above minimum wage would have $6.43 per person per day for food.

"Which is simply, as you and I know, just not enough," she told Breakfast host John Campbell.

People often pay the rent, electricity, send their children to school and pay medical bills, but end up having to reduce costs on food - including the kind of food and amount of it, Robinson said.

"Being food-insecure affects your physical health, it affects your mental wellbeing, it affects your ability to learn at school, relationships you have, it affects your spirit," she said.

Statistics recently released by the Ministry of Health showed one in five Kiwi children were living with "food insecurity", meaning there was an uncertain or limited amount of food available to them.

The City Mission is launching its annual winter appeal. It is trying to raise awareness and funds to support those facing insecurity about where their next meal comes from.

"Our appeal is looking to raise money to continue to run the services and support we provide to Auckland's vulnerable citizens, we also want to try to raise awareness of food insecurity and how devastating, wide-reaching and long term the effects can be," Robinson said.

Click here to make a donation

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• tvnz.co.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz

That building, to be called HomeGround, will contain accommodation, health services and community facilities. Demolition of the old City Mission buildings has already begun. Continue reading

It is shifting to a temporary site so the existing building in Hobson St can be upgraded.

Its accommodation, food bank, medical centre and other services will be located a few blocks away at 23 Union Street until a $90 million redevelopment is completed.

The former Prince of Wales Pub has housed the Auckland City Mission for 38 years, but the small, ageing building is no longer considered fit for purpose.

The new building will stand beside the present site, which has heritage status.

It will be expanded from two storeys to nine, with accommodation, more detox rooms, a larger medical centre, job training and other services.

It will include eighty high-density apartments. Forty units will be for the chronically homeless and the rest for those on the social housing waitlist.

It's the first New Zealand example of a Common Ground model - a form of supported living for those with highly complex needs, the City Mission's social services manager Helen Robinson said.

"Critical to this model is what we call a concierge service."

That means an all-hours social worker on site as well as security.

Those with complex needs have the option of living in the unit for life.

City Missioner Chris Farrelly said the wooden building has ecological features, gardens and looks to te ao Maori principles of manaakitanga and kawanatanga to create a welcoming environment.

Farrelly said there was growing demand in Auckland for the city mission's services - for shelter, for food, for healthcare and for a safe haven from domestic violence.

Around 400 homeless people have the Hobson St site listed as their official address.

Source

• radionz.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• maoritelevision.com
• Image: vernontava.com

"This was a humbling experience during which we felt deeply Christ's call to sit and walk alongside those who struggle or find themselves on the margins of society," they said in their statement issued at the conclusion of the meeting.

Chris Farrelly, Auckland City Missioner, said it was a "wonderful event having the Bishops at the Mission supporting the work of the Mission in this way."

"The Auckland City Mission relies on the generosity of such people to provide the food for the daily meals, served 365 days a year," he said.

The bishops were attending the annual week-long meeting of the Executive Committee of the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania.

Previously the Bishops had visited to De La Salle College in South Auckland. They said the highlight of that visit was the Mass for the entire community. "The boys' enthusiastic participation in the liturgy uplifted our hearts."

The Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania is made up of the Bishop's Conferences in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, New Zealand, and the Pacific Island nations (CEPAC).

The bishops attending the meeting were:

Archbishop Sir John Cardinal Ribat MSC (President), Archbishop of Port Moresby, PNG.
Bishop Robert McGuckin (Deputy President) Bishop of Toowoomba, Australia.
Archbishop Michel Calvet SM, Archbishop of Noumea, New Caledonia.
Bishop Colin Campbell, Bishop of Dunedin, New Zealand.
Bishop Charles Drennan, Bishop of Palmerston North, New Zealand.
Bishop Vincent Long OFM Conv, Bishop of Parramatta, Australia.

There will be a plenary assembly of the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania in Port Moresby in April 2019.

The theme will be ‘Care of our Common Home of Oceania: A sea of possibilities'.

Source

Supplied: NZCBC, Auckland City Mission

The charity has been struggling since May and Auckland City Missioner Chris Farrelly said they've been at full capacity for weeks and can't see it letting up anytime soon.

"The sharp edge of poverty is felt around winter more than any other time. People are living hand to mouth," Farrelly told the Herald. Continue reading

The story was part of the Mission's Mothers' Day fundraising campaign.

"It was at odds with what I know of the brave and resilient mothers and grandmothers we work with and also the kindness and generosity that are such a part of our community," he said.

For Mothers' Day the Auckland City Mission celebrated the resourcefulness of the mothers and grandmothers who visit the mission, by highlighting an example of the sacrifices they make to feed their children.

The Mission decided to focus feminine hygiene products and the reality that mothers have to ask the Mission to provide these items because they need to spend all their funds on finding food for their children.

This mother hoped that she could personalise and humanise the issue by telling her story.

She spoke openly and readily about the reality of raising her family in poverty, raising awareness of the issue.

Subsequently, numerous people have taken to Facebook to write vitriolic messages to her and her children.

"Unconstructive and judgmental statements directed at individuals won't solve this they will just damage further the pride and resilience of already vulnerable and marginalised people," said Farrelly.

He said when he became City Missioner he was unprepared for the intolerance and critical judgment placed on families and individuals living in poverty, by some members of our community.

"It is at odds with the caring, compassion and awareness displayed by so many others," he said.

• Read: Athena Moana's story
• Watch: Food Parcels on Mother's Day

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: resources.stuff.co.nz

Farrelly began as CEO of the Auckland City Mission on 1 June.

"It's no one organisation, no one political party, no one government, no matter what can do this, it's a whole community"

"We work all the time, day in, day out with some of the city's most poorest [sic], we feed and we house, we know the situation. We have our finger on the pulse."

Auckland City Mission has followed 100 families closely to work out what's happening and research shows that there are many causes, and many solutions.

The cost of housing, mental health, debt, drug and alcohol issues, violence and lack of education contribute to the poor living conditions of Auckland's most vulnerable, Farrelly says.

"We need to be part of something that would change that. Over the years we haven't collaborated well. Sometimes we are part of the problem when we don't collaborate to change."

64-year-old Farrelly has most recently been chief executive of Manaia Health Public Health Organisation in Northland.

He spent 10 years working in the slums in Asia. "All my life I've been working with poor people," he says.

"This has been my life, it's where my heart lies. "So it was a call to my heart, some expertise and some experience."

"I've seen a lot of suffering. The results of poverty, of pain, or brokenness. But what stands out for me is in the midst of all this I've seen incredible goodness and human strength."

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• Image: nzdoctor.co.nz

Rob Smith and Richard Turipa, both 36, were picked to make the film because they are members of the Mission's Hobson Street Theatre Company.

"It was important to us that our homeless clients were involved in the filming, in order to ensure the final result was as authentic as possible," Chris Farelly,the Auckland City Missioner says.

Smith hails from Northland's Ngapuhi iwi, but his family moved "all over the place" and he ended up sleeping on the streets for just over a year.

"I was travelling around and trying to find work. I couldn't afford rent, and I didn't want to stay with family because I could see that they were struggling as well, so I chose to go rough for a while," he said.

Turipa, from the Tuhoe iwi in the Bay of Plenty, slept on the streets on and off for three years.

"It was basically just losing jobs and then running out of money to be able to afford things like rent and food," he said.

"In those times you are just wondering how you're going to get by, so you might spend some on alcohol, and then it was, 'Okay, I'm getting drunk, there's no work, and you're feeling not too confident about things.

And you don't have that much family support around because they've moved overseas or around other parts of the country. Also I had a gambling problem, all those things were factors."

Harsh Reality was filmed in Auckland central. The two men are filmed in the city at night with a GoPro-style camera that lets the viewer see their world with 360-degree vision, either tilting a phone up and down or around or, on a desktop computer, clicking on an icon at the top-left of the screen to look up, down, left and right.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• tvnz.co.nz
• Image: Simon Collins

The Auckland City Street Count of Central Auckland has found 177 people were sleeping rough within 3km of the Sky Tower on a single night this year.

That's the most recorded since the count began in 2004, and is significantly higher than the 68 people counted in the same area in 2013.

Op Shop Dreams is a play about the ways in which people dream of a life different to their own.

It's being performed by The Hobson Street Theatre Company, a City Mission initiative which gives people, including the homeless, opportunities to perform.

Homeless people are inspired to be creative in the same way that anyone else would, Op Shop Dreams co-director Bronwyn Bent says. Continue reading