May 07, 2018
Te Puea keen to build transition units
Mangere's Te Puea Marae is putting its hand up for some of the $100 million the Government has earmarked to tackle homelessness.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Housing Minister Phil Twyford announced the funding boost at the marae on Friday, with a third to go on increasing transitional housing supply this winter and the balance to be spent over the next four years on Housing First services.
That's where families or homeless individuals are put into housng, with wraparound services added later.
Marae chair Hurimoana Dennis says it will be the third winter Te Puea has offered transitional housing.
"At the moment we're using cabins. What that means is we're at a cap of 25 heads or 5 families. If we can put the transitional units there we can lift our numbers to 50 heads or 10 families and potentially continue what we're doing," he says.
Mr Dennis says Te Puea has come up with a very Maori response to homelessness which reflects the needs of its whanau.
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