New emergency housing for Hutt Valley

The Koraunui Marae Trust has been contracted to provide housing and support services to the women and children who will stay in a new six-bedroom, three-bathroom house that is funded through the government’s new emergency housing initiative.

Trustee Henrietta Gemmell says the trust gets called daily by people seeking emergency housing.

The trust will have 12-week contracts with clients in the house to work with them identifying the services they need and finding them affordable housing.

“Twelve weeks is not a long time but we try to work with them to turn something around for them, whether it is their own personal lives working on the issues they have, working on their goals and plans, and then into housing because if our women aren’t well, they can’t cope and they can’t move on,” Ms Gemmell says

The Government has committed $354 million in new funding for emergency housing, which is expected to provide 8600 emergency housing places a year.