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Whangārei Business Owner Faces Living In Car If She Can't Find Place To Rent In A Week
Susan
Edmunds, Money Correspondent
24 December
2024
A Whangārei business owner is facing the prospect of living and working out of her car if she cannot find premises to rent in the next week.
Rhonda Saxton owns Rhonny-Lee Designs, in central Whangārei, which sells children's wear, arts and crafts and plants.
She also receives a benefit but wanted to build the business.
A dispute with her landlord prompted Saxton to give notice and her tenancy will end on 1 January.
So far, she has not been able to find anything else to shift to.
Saxton said she had applied to the Ministry of Social Development for help with a bond - with the intention that her business would pay part of the rent and she would pay the other - but had been turned down because her business's profit-and-loss statement was not sufficiently healthy.
"For any new business, the profit-and-loss report is going to look [bad]," she said.
"It doesn't show all the money you've put into the business, it doesn't reflect what your sales are. I've put $40,000 into the business, all the money from when my son bought me out of my half-share of our house. But the profit-and-loss shows a loss of $14,000. That wouldn't take into account what the sales are now.
"The business and I are paying half the rent here but they decided no way they are going to help me with the bond or anything because the business is not doing well enough.
"All I wanted was help with the bond and the move-in expenses, the first couple of weeks… people have offered me places I can store my stuff, but I have nowhere for me to go. I've got to be out by January 1, but I've got to have my shop open every day before Christmas, I can't start packing till after Christmas."
She said she wasn't making "thousands" from her business, but could turn over a couple of hundred dollars a day.
"I can pay weekly rent, I just needed a bit of help with the bond. There's no space at my kids' places, I'm going to every friend I've got and no one's got space, I don't know what I'm supposed to do."
If she could not find anything, she would end up in her car with her cat, she said.
She said MSD was worried she could not afford the rent on a new place but she had already proved she could pay $750 a week over the past months.
A new tenancy might cost $600.
Saxton said she understood she would not qualify for emergency housing because of her cat.
MSD regional commissioner for Northland Graham MacPherson said Saxton had not been refused that assistance.
"However, we understand Rhonda voluntarily broke her lease without arranging future housing she has contributed to her own homelessness, and may be ineligible for Emergency Housing for this reason.
"Rhonda will need to explore other accommodation options, including staying with family or friends. She can also get in touch with us about an assessment for the Social Housing Register.
"When providing assistance for rent and bond, we consider a number of factors including whether a client will be able to maintain their rent payments into the future and we are not putting them in a position that is unaffordable.
"Based on the profit and loss information she has provided us, we can see we would be putting her in an unaffordable situation as her business is not currently profitable.
"We would also need to determine eligibility as we understand she recently sold part or all of her house, possibly leaving her with a cash asset. We are happy to speak further with Rhonda about this."
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