July 10, 2017
Tamariki main focus for Te Puea Marae re-opening doors
Te Puea Marae will reopen its doors and relaunch Manaaki Tangata to whanau kore kainga or those living in cars and in over crowded situations early next week.
Te Puea Marae Chair and Manaaki Tangata Co-Ordinator Huri Dennis, says unlike last year where all homeless were catered for, this time round the Marae will narrow its focus.
"The kids will be our main focus we're not taking rough sleepers. It's a lot more intimate but we're going to be focussed on quality outcomes rather than quantity. When our families come through we will do our best to whakakaha ake te mana te tapu te wairua o te whanau", says Huri Dennis.
He says Te Puea Marae has spent the past 10 months building better stronger relationships with Government Agencies like Social Development, Housing and WINZ.
Over 400 whanau and individuals are estimated to be living in motels across Tamaki Makaurau and while Te Puea closed its doors in September last year, they never stopped working with whanau who were seeking support.
"To be fair we've had whanau trickling in ever since. Maybe one or 2 every two or 3 weeks or a phone call or people dropping in to see if there's any kai or food or anything like that and anything we did have we gave. So it hasn't really stopped it's kind of moved on to homeless tourists in one capacity as well," says the chair of Te Puea Memorial Marae, Huri Dennis.
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