'Tiny' brings a big chance for South Waikato's rough sleepers

Wednesday, 20 June 2018

Tiny Deane is set to open a night shelter in Tokoroa for the South Waikato's rough sleepers.

Tiny Deane's a big man but seeing 15 people sleeping rough under a Tokoroa bridge almost had him in tears.

He stayed out in the cold of the South Waikato timber town from 10pm till 4am visiting rough sleepers and he emerged convinced they needed a homeless shelter.

Tokoroa is in need of a homeless shelter, according to Tiny Deane (file photo).

'We spotted 15 sleeping under one bridge and some of them didn't even have blankets, they were sleeping straight on the grass,' he said.

'We also found a couple of people under vents because they were blowing out warm air - it was disgusting and just about brought me to tears.'

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Deane said there's an immediate need for a shelter as the number of people sleeping rough in the district is getting worse.

The Rotorua-based founder of Visions of a Helping Hand Charitable Trust has already opened night shelters in Rotorua and Taupō.

Deane, a former truck driver who started the charity just under a year ago after a major accident almost took his life, has been in talks with community representatives and organisations to get the ball rolling.

Deane said synthetics continue to play a major role in homelessness.

'My biggest concern is synthetics. They are so easy to get now,' he said.

'What I am trying to achieve is not to just house people and chuck them into a warm comfortable bed, it's to work on their mental stability and all their addictions to find out why.

'We will have social workers in to talk to them so that within six months to a year they will have more stability in their lives.'

South Waikato Mayor Jenny Shattock acknowledged homelessness was getting worse.

'People moving to Tokoroa to live from other areas has put a lot of pressure on accommodation and rentals are very hard to find,' she said.

'Landlords are selling their rentals because of the increase in values and their tenants are having to move out, some with nowhere to go.

'We have recognised that there is a problem in our community and I attended a meeting several weeks ago that was called by [Taupo MP] Louise Upston and included a number of social agencies in Tokoroa.

'We were wanting to understand the scale of the problem and the support and services that people need and more immediately to see what could be done to find shelter for these people at night.

'I think that providing a shelter is something that we need to do as a caring community, which we are. Our winters can be freezing and I don't want anyone to die in the cold,' she said.

Tokoroa police Senior Sergeant Jason Henderson said often people sleeping rough were from out of town.

'The thing with homeless people is they will go far and wide so they can find shelter or whatever. A lot of the time we find they are not locals,' he said.

'Last week for example we arrested two homeless people who were from Auckland where they had committed serious offences. The reason they were here was because they used to have family living in the South Waikato so they came looking for them.'

Henderson said the shelter had the potential to be a good thing for Tokoroa.

'Tiny has got the best intentions of the Tokoroa community at heart and has got processes and policies in place that cover things off. Providing he sticks to that I think it should be fine,' he said.