Loafers Lodge tragedy highlighted what's broken within our social systems

Friday, 19 May 2023

Firefighters at the scene of the fatal Loafers Lodge fire in Wellington.

Ronji Tanielu is a principal policy advisor at The Salvation Army’s social policy and parliamentary unit

OPINION: The Salvation Army continues to offer our prayers, condolences and support for those affected by the tragedy at Loafers Lodge in Wellington this week. We are thankful for the emergency teams and other supporters for their selfless care and effort. In times like these, I’m reminded of Psalm 23 where God provides comfort even in the darkest and toughest moments of life.

Like many other Kiwis, I watched the footage and read the reports with real sadness. But I also had several questions: Who was living in this lodge? How do we ensure these catastrophes do not happen again? How do we remain hopeful in these times?

These are questions that many New Zealanders are wrestling with after seeing the disturbing images. The investigations continue and more truth will be unveiled soon. With that in mind, we do not want to politicise this event, especially with the Budget and upcoming election. Nor do we want to apportion blame early or sensationalise the event. But we do want to highlight some critical points that should not be missed during this time.

* What safety regulations were at play for the Loafers Lodge hostel?

Acting Wellington district commander Inspector Dion Bennett provides an update on the deadly fire at Loafers Lodge.

* Loafers Lodge housed some of Wellington’s 'most vulnerable'

So, who lived there? Many of the residents of Loafers Lodge are reportedly people with a multitude of complex needs – addictions challenges, reintegrating into society after prison, family breakdowns – as well as the elderly. There are lots of bureaucratic words to describe people in these situations – vulnerable, marginalised, the working poor. We prefer calling them “our people”, because our mission, through our churches and social services nationally, is to serve people facing these challenges and obstacles.

We work with many people in boarding houses and lodges. We are constantly reminded daily that each of “our people” that we serve carries the Imago Dei, made by a Creator with inherent dignity, beauty and worth, despite the viciousness and hardships of life.

Ronji Tanielu: “We have raised concerns about boarding houses for nearly two decades.”

The fire has tragically taken several of these lives. But many more in that community and around the country need even greater support with winter approaching, a crushing cost-of-living crisis and hardships hidden everywhere across our society.

How do we stop future disasters like this? Tragedies like this highlight things that went wrong or are broken within our social systems. Clearly, there are massive issues connected to housing and homelessness in our country. These issues are longstanding.

Efforts to increase our public housing supply, to partner more with community housing providers, or to provide more transitional housing are admirable.

But rough sleeping, over-crowding, homelessness and other housing hardships stubbornly persist. Emergency housing in motels or 12-week transitional housing options help, but are effectively Band-Aid solutions. In the end, we just need more houses.

The reality is that good, safe, healthy and affordable housing is sparse for people with little or no other choices. Government and community housing options are full and have long waiting lists, and so “our people” are often driven to options of private boarding houses, lodges or similar types of housing.

We have raised concerns about boarding houses for nearly two decades, having been consistently troubled by their overall safety, lack of regulation governing their practice, and the lack of ownership or leadership from authorities around who should be monitoring these houses.

We’ve advocated for boarding houses and lodges to gain community housing accreditation with the government, to help lift their compliance and the wraparound support of residents.

We’ve also pushed for tighter regulations, because boarding houses fall within an almost grey area of the law, which is unhelpful. Clarity and leadership are desperately needed. These are some ideas that might help avoid future tragedies like Loafers Lodge.

So, how do we stay hopeful? This is extremely hard. We mourn with the nation because of these losses. We know urgent action like more houses or improving boarding house standards is needed so that we don’t have repeats of this sad event again.

But we need to learn from this, to awhi or support our surviving residents and those in similar positions, and to heed the Psalmist’s offer of finding comfort and hope in dark times.