Sleeping pods for the homeless held back by council consents, Rotorua organisation says
Photo:
SUPPLIED
A Rotorua organisation providing sleeping pods for the city's homeless has said they are being held back by council insisting that they get consents.
The Village of Hope has been set up in a secret location by the group Love Soup, which said it was an effort to give the city's homeless somewhere safe to sleep and to move them away from CBD shop fronts.
Rotorua
has been grappling with a large homeless population
in recent years, and last month a large number of homeless people were trespassed from a makeshift camp in the city centre.
It also comes
as a controversial programme that uses the motels as emergency housing
was being phased out.
Julie King from Love Soup told
Checkpoint
the goal was to keep people safe and protected through a community based solution.
"Particularly with the terrible weather that we've been having, we've had some streeties going to hospital with pneumonia... then they're not getting proper sleep."
The pods, which were made locally, were insulated and lockable.
King said the pods being placed in a secret location was due to a number of reasons, but was not being helped by council.
"We had a meeting with them on Monday and they were more concerned about paying consents rather than helping the situation.
"I know that they're trying to remove [the homeless] from the CBD, but you can't shuffle them from one corner to the next without solutions."
She said the council chasing consents is "almost like making camping illegal", and that bigger issues affecting people on the streets needed to be addressed now.
"At least they're safe and protected from drug peddlers that are ticking them up and getting them high instead of being able to eat properly."
Rawinia Kahotea and Julie King from Love Soup in Rotorua.
Photo:
RNZ/Libby Kirkby-McLeod
A Rotorua Lakes Council spokesperson told
Checkpoint
they had a legal responsibility for public safety and regulations relating to provision of accommodation are about protecting people, and said they cannot knowingly ignore the regulations.
They said once they were aware of plans for sleeping accommodation for rough sleepers a meeting was requested with the group to understand their plans and provide advice, as they had not received a consent application or request for information about requirements the group might need to meet.
"We have not been able to properly advise the group as they have not shared any information with us about what they plan to do or are doing, how or where."
The council said they advised the group any type of accommodation required consent before starting operations and encouraged Love Soup to get this process underway.
They said they were happy to continue working with Love Soup to guide them through the consent processes.
King said there were five people sleeping in the pods, the identities of which she wanted to keep private for their protection.
"They are safe where they are and they're doing extremely well."
King said they were open to working the council and complying with the consent, but currently the group is more focused on helping those sleeping rough.
"If they're more focused on charging us for consents when we're not charging anything for helping our people then we have a problem."
King said while the pods helped get people off the streets for now there still needed to be more permanent solutions.
"There needs to be some kind of solution working alongside council and other community groups to make things better... but there seems to be a division and I just feel that there needs to be more working together."
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