More than 20,000 Aucklanders don’t have access to regular showers or the ability to wash their clothing. Alice Webb-Liddall tags along on a shift with Orange Sky, who are giving homeless people back these basic needs. On an overcast Friday morning outside the Auckland City Mission, a group of volunteers are gathered around an orange … Read more
The Auckland City Mission is in the midst of a $90 million redevelopment. Gareth Shute, once a volunteer at the Mission, talks with long-serving staff member Wilf Holt about how the Mission has developed over the past two decades and what lies ahead for this nearly 100-year old institution. Back in 1999, I was a … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Social housing list balloons amid heavy demand, bizarre development in NZ-China relations takes in former PM, and another species of foreign fruit fly found. The social housing waiting list has cracked 10,000, and is steadily rising all the time. Newshub reports that is an increase of 73% on … Read more
Late on Monday night saw an unprecedented, large-scale ‘point in time’ census of Auckland’s homeless population, ‘Ira Mata, Ira Tangata’. Toby Manhire went out counting, together with about 700 others. Think about it like this, said Wilf Holt: “You’re going to be visiting people in their bedrooms.” He said: “If tomorrow night someone flashes a torch … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Two day justice summit wraps up, Winston Peters gets up to mischief in Australia, and voting in the Howick by-election gets underway. A two day summit on justice, crime and rehabilitation has concluded in Porirua. Senior ministers heard a range of views about what was wrong with … Read more
To help end homelessness, we need to be the sort of people who are willing to get involved each other’s lives, writes Aaron Hendry. The closure of Tiny Deane’s night shelter in Rotorua highlights what’s lacking in much of the public discussion around ending homelessness: humanity. Homelessness is not simply a “problem we need to … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Workers prepare to walk off the job, Nicky Hager gives his account of police harassment, and a march in Tauranga against the proposed begging ban. A wave of strikes are set to hit the public sector, while private sector workers are also taking action. The latest on … Read more
Community activists and charity groups staged a hikoi in Tauranga today, outraged at a bylaw prohibiting beggars and rough sleepers in the CBD. But the hikoi is also about restoring mana and hope, explains Kai Aroha founder Tania Lewis-Rickard Two years ago I started our charity Kai Aroha because of the obvious growth of poverty … Read more