Whanganui carparks now accommodating city's homeless

Freedom camping sites and carparks in Whanganui are home to a growing fleet of vehicles where the city's homeless sleep.

The district council has set aside money and earmarked a site for them to live, but it has not attracted universal support.

One person not in favour of the proposed site on Taupō Quay is Jenny Johnson. She has spent much of the past couple of years without a home.

Thanks to the generosity of Whanganui businessman Murray Robinson, who lets them live on his rural property rent-free, she and partner Grant Fothergill have somewhere to live now.

But the growing problem of homelessness cannot be ignored, she said.

"I wish that the council and other organisations really would take the homeless situation seriously instead of just flogging them off or passing them on to somebody else who doesn't give a hoot either.

"Help them."

Johnson said she lived in a caravan with her mother Pat for a while, before the pair got a house. 

After her mum died she could not stay at the house and was again homeless. She then lived with Fothergill in a shack in sand dunes near Whanganui, until it became unsafe for them there.

At least there the pair had space - something Johnson said was lacking in the Taupō Quay site.

"As far as I know there are probably 100 people that are homeless. How the hell are you going to fit 100 people in that little tiny box?

"Half of them are crackheads and the other half are druggies, and the others aren't even mentally stable. They shouldn't be in the community."

Johnson now has somewhere to live, but she knows how precarious life on the streets is.

"To have a home and somewhere to call home - it means a lot to me. I feel sorry for the other people that are still looking."

She described the property where she and Fothergill were staying as bliss. They did not have hot water, heating water with a fire for their outdoor bath. They grew and caught food, and had few costs.

But they knew they were lucky.

'This site's unsafe, to be honest'

Earlier this year, the council voted to spend $170,000 to $370,000 on a homeless support site at Taupō Quay - presently a small freedom camping spot.

The money will go to shower and toilet facilities, a fence, security and a portacom office for the likes of Ministry of Social Development staff to work with people there.

There were concerns about the site, however.

Advocate for homeless people and co-founder of charitable organisation Unity Food Sonny Barlow was not in favour of the move.

"I think this site's unsafe, to be honest. I don't think it's an appropriate place to put people," he said.

"A lot of the people that I have spoken to that have been asked by the council to move there have stayed on one or two nights and left again. They're talking about the smell of faeces and urine around."

Barlow and RNZ had a look around. There was a faint smell of urine and rubbish in bush areas that back on to the site and, Barlow said, made it unsafe.

One man living at another freedom camping site said council staff had told him to move to Taupō Quay, but he'd refused due to hygiene concerns.

Since the 2020 lockdown, many homeless people have occupied another riverside freedom camping spot on Anzac Parade. Barlow said it was safer and more spacious. For a while it was known as the Whanganui Homeless Hub, and he coordinated community efforts to support people there.

"I believe at this site the perfect fix would be to add an ablution block so several people can have access to a shower, maybe a coin-operated shower.

"That would be a way cheaper option than what I think the council is suggesting at the moment."

Working people also seeking help

It was not a problem that was going away.

For more than two years Robinson, who runs Murray's Emporium, has held weekly BBQs for people in need. Robinson said he was feeding 30 to 40 people a week - out of his own pocket, and from donations - and had recently noticed working people were even seeking his help, as the cost of living rose.

"We see the roughest and the roughest. It's just horrible seeing families there with young children. It's heartbreaking really, but they're there and they turn up every Wednesday night."

Councillor Josh Chandulal-Mackay voted for developing the Taupō Quay site, which he said was a short-term option for the next year or two while central government got its act together.

"This is more about the opportunity to put pressure on the government as well," he said.

"If we're able to say to the government we're stepping in and using ratepayer funding to deal with a problem that we are not funded to deal with, and that's central government's prerogative, then having a location like this in a public area will put pressure on the government to respond."

Whanganui District Council community wellbeing manager Lauren Tamehana said officials were still in the planning and consent phase for the Taupō Quay site, and work was expected to begin soon.

The area would be available for homeless people once toilets and showers, and the office, were installed.

Tamehana said the council was not asking anyone to move from other areas, but would encourage homeless people to the new site when it was ready.

"The goal is to help people experiencing homelessness feel safe, keep their dignity and get access to help," she said.

"Some people have been moved on from Anzac Parade, but that was because of unsafe and antisocial behaviour."

The council did not know exactly how many homeless people were in the city, but said there were almost 300 people on the social housing register.

"This is an interim solution that the council is working on in conjunction with local iwi and we are fully aware that it is not going to be permanent or solve our homeless situation within Whanganui," she said.

"There will be onsite wraparound support for people staying there as well to ensure that they are linked in with the correct services to help them get into a home."