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Creating Community Unity
Aaron’s experience with homelessness started almost 20-years ago in Australia. He has a solid job, partner and savings. Until he didn’t.
Aaron’s experience with homelessness started almost 20-years ago in Australia. He had a solid job, partner and savings. Until he didn’t.
The best moment of Aaron’s life has a timestamp. 10.10pm, the moment his daughter was born*.
He had moved to Australia two years earlier and says he had everything; a “solid job, solid partner and solid savings”.
What was lacking, he says, was communication between him and his partner. They fell pregnant as the relationship was ending, and he became a full-time father.
Then the savings ran out.
As a Kiwi living in Australia, Aaron had no access to the benefit or family support.
“I handed my daughter back to her mother and my homelessness started from there.
“I didn’t tell my ex partner I was homeless,” he says.
Over the next six years, he says he reached his lowest point, estranged from his daughter and couch surfing to stay afloat.
He made a decision that altered his life.
“In 2017 I decided to do an armed robbery that changed the whole trajectory of my life. With deep regret [about the robbery], I was deported and in 2019 I came back to Tauranga.”
Back home he found a job, but Covid hit. He started sleeping rough again.
Aaron’s journey from having it all, to financial insecurity, to homelessness is not uncommon.
It is estimated that more than 120,000 people across Aotearoa New Zealand are currently experiencing homelessness. According to Stats NZ, this includes people who are without shelter, in emergency or temporary accommodation or in housing without basic necessities like running water or electricity.
As the cost of living increases, so does this number.
To raise awareness of this issue, Te Paiaka Lived Experience Panel and community meal provider Under the Stars are hosting a free event to mark World Homeless Day on October 10.
Te Paiaka works alongside community organisations, local government and support services to improve responses to homelessness and housing insecurity across the Bay of Plenty.
Through advocacy, collaboration and education, the panel ensures the voices of people with lived experience help shape community initiatives and drive positive change.
Held at Jordan Field, Memorial Park, the World Homeless Day event aims to raise awareness of homelessness and housing insecurity while creating opportunities for people to connect with local support services, community organisations and one another in a welcoming, judgement-free environment.
Running from 11am to 3pm, Te Paiaka kaitiaki Rose Kent-Wilson says the event is for everyone.
“We love for our homeless whānau to meet us and connect with services. But we also want the community to get together and celebrate the good instead of dehumanising our whānau and seeing us as a problem,” she says.
“We invite the wider community to come and see it, and to feel it. There’s a lot of amazing stories. They’re so often not treated like people and we want to change that. We want our homeless whānau to feel empowered.”
Earlier this year, the Government proposed the Summary Offences (Move-on Orders) Amendment Bill which gives Police the power to issue move-on orders to people who are acting disorderly in public. The Government has stated the aim is to “reclaim streets and town squares for the enjoyment of those who visit, work and live there”.
Rose says it criminalises people for being homeless, and is especially unsafe for women.
“The further they are away from people and CCTV the less safe they are. There’s no hub and no shelter. There’s no local rehab. There’s no safe spaces, especially for wāhine. We are moved on. And the further we are moved on, the less safe we are.”
“People are already being moved on here. They’re getting moved on, again and again, with no solutions as to where to go. People are told, ‘Just not here’.”
“The further they are away from people and CCTV the less safe they are. There’s no hub and no shelter. There’s no local rehab. There’s no safe spaces, especially for wāhine. We are moved on. And the further we are moved on, the less safe we are,” Rose says.
Aaron says he’s experienced rock bottom, but with community support, he’s turning that pain into purpose.
After Covid, Aaron started to put himself “out there”.
“I knew the only person who could turn this around was me. I turned up to community meals run by local churches and other groups.”
He’s now an integral member of Te Paiaka, ensuring real voices with lived experiences are heard and help shape initiatives meant to support homeless communities.
The group was initially formed in 2023 as the lived experience panel for Kāinga Tupu Taskforce which was initiated by Tauranga City Council in collaboration with Ministry of Social Development to address homelessness and housing challenges across the Western Bay of Plenty.
Now, with limited funding, the group “plugs gaps” and “ensure the message is heard” at Taskforce hui.
“We’re a voice for homelessness in the Bay,” Rose says. Nodding, Aaron agrees.
“We are trying to put unity into community.”
The second best day of Aaron’s life was earlier this year* when he woke up to a special Facebook message.
After more than a decade without speaking to his daughter, she messaged him.
“It’s been pretty cool actually. Pretty special. I’m grateful to be able to talk to her everyday. She remembers the last time we were together”.
She lives in Australia and they’re planning a South Island road trip for later this year.
“I acknowledge that I still have work to do and strive everyday to be better than the day before.”
“I acknowledge that I still have work to do and strive everyday to be better than the day before. We can’t expect the same results if we do the same thing,” Aaron says.
“To do the things we never do we have to do the things we never done.”
* Some details have been changed for privacy.
World Homeless Day Event
Saturday 10 October, 11am - 3pm
Memorial Park, Tauranga.
