Thursday 4 October 2012
Think-tank on Homelessness taking place in Wellington
Disturbing statistics on homelessness in Wellington have driven concerned citizens to convene a community think-tank on
homelessness, being held in Tory Street tomorrow (Friday, 5 October).
The think-tank is being held at 19 Tory St – the home of the Concerned Citizens Collective - from 5.30 to 7.30pm.
The event has the support of Stephanie McIntyre, director of Downtown Community Ministry, who says “I really think it is
time for creative solutions to this most pressing issue here in our Capital”.
Organiser Barry Thomas describes the homelessness situation as an “imperfect storm”, contrasting the shortfall of 1300
social housing beds in Wellington to the city’s 12,000 empty office spaces. Recent homelessness in the Aro Valley area
alone – as reported in the Valley’s community newspaper - found many people sleeping rough, in garages and putting
pressure on their quite unprepared community co-ordinator and Aro Valley Community Council’s centre.
With the City Council upgrade of their 2,300 flats social housing has lost in the order of 750- 900 flats at any one
time, with, it appears, little contingency for on-going replacement during the 20 year upgrade. Add to this the loss of
Housing NZ flats on the Terrace. and even more in Newtown due to increased concern over earthquake damage, and the
plight of the most vulnerable in our community is at an all time low.
Since the think-tank was first announced it has been attracting the attention of developer Ian Cassels, designer Joe
Bleakley (OBE), Steve Flude of Wellington City Council and a growing Facebook following.
Barry Thomas: “Already we have designers, artists, social thinkers, people, architects, developers and community housing
advocates, lining up alongside experts in homelessness and people who have experienced and are experiencing homelessness
in the common cause of taking some tangible leadership and action.
“Any creative thinkers in Wellington who care and have something to contribute are welcome to join in - be it with legal
support, regulatory advice, design or any other capacity that’s about putting forward housing solutions and
partnerships, or simply adding their ideas to the mix.
“By pooling our collective thinking we think that we can push beyond a talkfest and really ignite some action. We’ve
already making helpful connections with groups in Australia and have been put in touch with a like minded group in San
Francisco so it feels very much like it is taking off in the right direction.
“Imagine if we could harness just a fraction of the creative building capacity of Weta or the Hobbit makers. This really
is a call for ‘haves’ of the community to come to the aid of the ‘have nots’”, says Thomas. “We can’t really be worthy
of names like creative capital or cool capital if we don’t work together to meet the basic housing needs that exist
around us”.
ENDS