Combined agency effort helps slash Christchurch 'streetie' numbers

Friday, 30 November 2018

Garry Dickey has a new home after spending many years on the streets in Christchurch.

Christchurch rough sleeper numbers have plummeted a year after the first head count found 215 on the streets.

One social agency boss believes the number of 'streeties' in the city centre could be as low as 20. Some on the street say it could be fewer than a dozen.

Many since the last count are in transitional or emergency housing while they wait for permanent placements. A combined approach aimed at the chronically homeless is credited with having the most significant impact.

Garry Dickey wants to get a job, now he finally has a home, but says he needs to beg in the meantime to cover the cost of food. After paying rent and for other amenities, he's left with very little.

* 'You all left us behind': Inconvenient truths from Christchurch's homeless

* He was 'chronically homeless'. Now Michael Apanui has a home and a job

* Christchurch's 'streeties' tell their stories

Now Dickey has to buy things like dishwashing detergent as he adjusts to home life.

* No quick fix for housing and homeless issue in Southland and Otago**

After seven years on the streets, Dickey has his own home thanks to Housing First.

Housing First – an initiative is led by the Christchurch Methodist Mission but run in partnership with a half-dozen other agencies – has since put 31 people into homes across the city since starting earlier this year.

Garry Dickey is one of those people. After a month in his new home, he having a rough time sleeping – but is happy not to be sleeping rough.

After seven years on the street, he was still 'used to sleeping on the hard ground'.

'It took me a while to get used to the bed. I kept falling off,' he said with a chuckle. 'I'm not used to the comfort.'

Before Dickey moved into his flat, he would sleep all over the place. The YMCA. Couch surfing. Seven weeks in a motel. On the footpath outside the Ibis hotel.

Michael Apanui was one of the first of Christchurch's homeless to be given a place to live under the Housing First scheme.

During a walk around the city centre on Tuesday, Stuff reporters found two rough sleepers – a couple. They were not begging at the time but had a shopping cart with belongings, including sleeping bags.

Two days later, it was more difficult to find rough sleepers or beggars. None were spotted on a walk from Cathedral Square to the end of Colombo St. A once busy under-bridge spot had two sleeping setups but it was unclear how long they had been left unattended.

But fewer streeties does not mean Christchurch homelessness has been resolved.

Conor Galloway pictured homeless outside the BNZ Centre in Christchurch in July. His location now is unknown.

Of the 31 Housing First clients, 13 are in Housing New Zealand properties, and 13 more with the Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust (OCHT). Both agencies have housed people through their own programmes. Some have died.

Dickey said many were going 'couch-to-couch, bed-to-bed', in transitional or emergency housing.

He may not have many belongings yet, but Dickey can keep his bike, also provided through Housing First, in his garage.

Christchurch City Missioner Matthew Mark said two outreach social workers, jointly funded by the mission and Christchurch City Council, had 'a pretty good handle on what's out there'. They were on the streets all day, five days a week.

He put the number of streeties at about 20 and said it was staying fairly consistent.

'So as quickly as we're finding accommodation for someone, we're seeing that same space is being back-filled onto the streets as well.'

Watching television is still a novelty for Dickey.

A double recliner is more comfortable than the hard ground.

Housing First team leader Nicola Fleming said another 10 people were on the books. The service had closed off referrals for a short time so it did not build up a backlog, but was open again.

About 65 people were staying each night at the Salvation Army Addington Lodge, director Glenn Dodson said. That figure was about the same as this time last year.

'Most of them are coming to us having just lost their housing, and before they end up on the street,' he said. Most of his clients did not come from the central city.

Fleming agreed with Mark that there were fewer on the streets, but said the actual number was 'just impossible to count'.

Collective for the Homeless coordinator Brenda Lowe-Johnson quite a few had 'hidden away'. They were concerned about being in harm's way.

She had housed more than 400 people in four years. More than 30 had been put in homes since May.

'There might be around 70 rough sleepers … not in the city centre because a lot of them have gone out further.'

The collective held its final hui for the year on Friday. About 50 people, mostly current or former rough sleepers, collected Christmas parcels with food and other goodies, as well as an item of clothing worth $25.

OCHT chief executive Cate Kearney said trust staff would occasionally meet people while they were sleeping on the street. Its tenancy manager could support up to 30 former rough sleepers in the Christchurch City Council-owned flats the trust managed.

Tenancy manager Lorraine Williams said she was excited to see the looks on people's faces when they had come from a rough sleeping environment to 'see their new home and realise its theirs'.

Some of her former streetie tenants had now began working. Having a home had 'changed their lives and given them opportunities'.