We lift lives - and save them!
Four men are in the lounge of one of our transitional housing apartments to talk about how the City Mission has helped them.
Outside the windows people are coming and going from the foodbank and the café. Across Hereford Street at our other half of the complex, they are going to and from our main reception area to see counsellors, duty social workers, visit our education hub, medical unit, and day programme.
It’s a busy place of people helping and being helped. It’s what the City Mission is.
Our Whakaora Kāinga residents come together in our communal living lounges.
Back in the Whakaora Kainga lounge, John says in a quiet voice: “I’m just grateful. It would be over for me if I wasn’t here. Things were getting that bad. I’ve got to make this work, or I’m a gonna. I’m grateful to be alive and to be here.”
The others look thoughtful and you sense he is not alone in thinking his life might end early. Phillip says, “If it wasn’t for the City Mission, I would still be doing the same old crap, and I would be even worse than I was. I was on a pretty quick downhill slope.”
All four had come to Whakaora Kainga from our men’s night shelter and all had arrived on our doorstep with nowhere to stay and in a bad state. All had serious addiction problems, and some had pasts that included crime and violence, and all talked about living aimlessly from day to day and being so lonely and feeling trapped and full of despair.
But at our innovative Whakaora Kāinga service they found a temporary home surrounded by City Mission support and services and all designed not to just patch them up, but to give them a new start, new hope and get them into permanent housing with the skills and mindset to make it work this time.
Unlike other transitional housing services, our residents have their own rooms but they live together like flatmates. We believe the social interactions and the way they help each other really adds a lot to what we give them with our intensive staffing. Our success rate in moving them into permanent housing has been spectacular compared to the past when they left straight from the emergency shelter.
Karl says he arrived at the Mission with nothing. He was 30kg underweight, very ill, in drug withdrawal and unable to help himself. Now he has regained his health and is regarded as one of the flat leaders. He is looking forward to getting a home and starting life anew.
“I’m so grateful. I’ve received a lot of help from the staff here at the City Mission and I have been able to help others - which has helped me a lot. If I can support and help people in the house as best I can, it puts things into perspective for me, rather than just being that solitary mindset.
He reflects for a moment then says: “People start to change in this building, so, yes, I’m grateful.”
“People start to change in this building, so, yes, I’m grateful”
All the men talk about how good it has been to have structure in their days, with the courses, outings, the flat duties and talks.
Colin says structure helps take his brain away from thinking about alcohol. He also says how good it is to be in a place with 24/7 staff and this really helps at night when fears, doubts and temptations rise and because they can always find the night staff member and talk things through.
It’s hard for them to talk about their situations but they wanted to do this to thank the City Mission’s supporters for making it possible for them to have another chance at life.
Phillip suddenly says, “Can I say one thing please. To Karl, I appreciate your help you’ve done with me because you are at a different stage of what I’ve been going through and you have helped me a hell of a lot to really think about things and level things out a bit instead of being up and down and all around. I appreciate it.”
Our staff member who was present later said it made her feel tearful with pride. This out-of-the-blue heartfelt thanks from one of our transitional housing residents to another summed up what we hoped might happen when we launched Whakaora Kāinga.
* Names have been changed to protect privacy.