News – Our Hidden Homeless
As you are reading this have a look around, are you in your home sitting comfortably on the sofa, at the table or in your bed?
For many Northlanders, having a place to call home is not a reality – nor is a bed, a couch or a table.
While most of us sit down to breakfast, or pop to the cafe for our flat white, others in our region are living in cow sheds, under tarpaulins, in cars, under bridges, in derelict buildings. Whether you choose to acknowledge what is happening in our own backyard or ignore it, what is certain is that it is not going away.
Solomon Group recently teamed up with Whakamanamai Whānau Trust, The Hits Northland and The Northern Advocate to spread awareness and help Northland’s homeless.
Take a look at the recent articles below to hear from those most in need and find out how you can help.
Tupu Aotearoa
Supporting Pasifika
Our Hidden Homeless: Northland campaign goal smashed thanks to generous readers
It began as a modest goal to fit out 10 portable cabins with furniture to help vulnerable and struggling Northlanders find a sense of place, and have somewhere to call home. And we totally smashed it.
The Northern Advocate’s Hidden Homeless campaign – a joint effort with Whakamanamai Whānau Trust, The Hits Northland and Solomon Group – has been an outstanding success.
To read the story in full from our friends at the Northern Advocate click here.
Tupu Aotearoa
Supporting Pasifika
Whare to the Whenua project helps Northlanders into home ownership
Northland has the worst rates of severe housing deprivation in the country. In the first of the Northern Advocate’s Hidden Homeless series, reporter Jenny Ling talks to locals with a practical solution.
Northlanders living in cars and tents, dads who have lost jobs because of Covid-19 and can’t afford to pay the rent, former prisoners who need a second chance and couch-surfing grandmothers with nowhere to call home.
To read the story in full from our friends at the Northern Advocate click here.
Tupu Aotearoa
Supporting Pasifika
Eric Monk finally has a place to call home
The Whare to the Whenua initiative is helping vulnerable Northlanders get into their own homes. Reporter Jenny Ling visits a whānau in Waitangi to see first-hand how it works.
To read the story in full from our friends at the Northern Advocate click here.
Tupu Aotearoa
Supporting Pasifika
Northland’s elderly living in Third World conditions
Elderly residents in the Far North are living in tents and makeshift shacks with no running water or power. Jenny Ling reports. Far North grandmother Rachel didn’t want to be a burden on her children.So she didn’t tell them when she lost her main source of income as a caregiver living in Auckland two years ago.
She didn’t tell any of her kids or any other whānau when her landlord increased the rent from $200 to $300.
The 62-year-old applied for other jobs, but couldn’t land one because of her age, and the benefit didn’t come close to covering her bills.
So, she packed her bags and left Auckland to return home to the North. Initially she lived in a tent on her whenua at Ngapipito, 15km south of Kaikohe.
To hear more about her story and find ways to help, read the full story from our friends at the Northern Advocate click here.
Tupu Aotearoa
Supporting Pasifika
Desperate need for housing for teen mums living in cow sheds
There is an urgent need for emergency housing in Northland for teenage mums with nowhere to go. Reporter Jenny Ling talks to those at the coalface and discovers how dire the situation really is.
To read the story in full from our friends at the Northern Advocate click here.
