Homeless campaigner hopes to put wake-ups to bed at night shelter

Wednesday, 11 July 2018

Tiny Deane is optimistic a solution can be found to the no-sleep night shelter dilemma.

It's the homeless night shelter with one thing missing - sleep.

That's a situation Visions of a Helping Hand founder and homeless campaigner Tiny Deane is optimistic may be put right, and soon.

Deane opened Rotorua's first night shelter for the homeless in June under what he believed was a blind-eye policy from Rotorua Lakes Council.

They would look the other way while the necessary consents were handled, and he'd give Rotorua's rough sleepers a place to spend the night away from the winter cold.

Members of Rotorua's homeless community took their call for a night shelter direct to council at a hikoi last month.

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'It was a big wink-wink thing,' Deane said.

'You do what you've got to do. I'll do what I've got to do.'

It's a view council have since been eager to stress they didn't share, and resulted in a compromise where the shelter was open at night - and referred to as an 'overnight drop in centre' - and Deane and his three security guards on site would have to shake awake anyone who fell asleep.

'[Council said] they could all die, but people can die on the streets. There's no way people can die in this shelter,' Deane said.

He was set to meet with council again on Wednesday and was optimistic of a resolution.

'They want the same thing as I do. It's just how we get there and how fast.'

Deane said he spent Monday night at the shelter, on shaking duty.

In a statement on the night shelter issued last week, council Kaiwhakahaere Māori (group manager Māori), Gina Rangi, said they supported Deane's work.

'We fully support the mahi (work) he is doing and his commitment to helping the city's most vulnerable. We have been working with Tiny Deane for some time to support his efforts to establish emergency housing and an overnight facility.

'What we have continuously reiterated to him is that the building needs to meet fire and earthquake safety standards because we are dealing with people's safety and their lives. If people are going to be sleeping in this building it needs to meet safety standards. It would be irresponsible for us to jeopardise the life of anyone in our community.'

Rangi also sat down with Stuff and reiterated council's position on sleeping at the night shelter.

'The agreement we reached is he could operate it as a drop in centre, but not to provide beds, that was always clear…people can spend the night there but we were always very explicit there's not to be any sleeping.'

Rangi said council had been working on solutions for Rotorua's homeless, issues including housing, toilet, shower and storage access, and they were aware Deane was 'dealing with some of the most difficult, complex problems'.

She also revealed a snapshot of Rotorua's homeless population was taken on February 26 this year, by the Rotorua Homelessness Governance Group and a team of volunteers.

The audit found one person had lived on Rotorua's streets for 17 years.