HomeGround – the new purpose-built home of the Auckland City Mission – opened on Hobson Street earlier this year.
The $110 million social services building has 80 permanent apartments, a health centre and a detox unit.
Simon Wilson's new book HomeGround tells the story of the new building, all it contains and the people who it serves.
Those who live in the apartments have security of tenure, he tells Kathryn Ryan.
“The ethic of the place is that they're theirs, they're their homes, and they've got them for as long as they want them.”
Wilson says a whole range of factors came together to make HomeGround - the dream of entrepreneur and former City Missioner Dame Diane Robertson - a reality.
Government funding contributed to the creation, as well as extensive fundraising by Richard Didsbury and Celia Caughey.
“They didn't do a mass appeal because they didn't want to cannibalise the existing mass appeals of the City Mission.
“So, they did a kind of shoulder-tapping exercise. And they worked very, very hard on that, very successfully, with a whole bunch of donors, almost all of whom are anonymous.”
HomeGround is based on the Housing First concept, which offers unconditional, permanent housing to those who need it.
“The old theory used to be that if you were an alcoholic, say, you needed to clean yourself up before you could be given somewhere to live. Because if you were an alcoholic and were given somewhere to live, you were going to drink on the premises and you're probably going to trash it and you were an unreliable customer.
“Housing First turns that on its head and says, if we want to help these people, they need somewhere safe and secure to live.”
Once a person is accommodated, other support and treatment can be delivered, Wilson says.
"That might be literacy, that might be mental health, that might be alcoholism, that might be drugs, it might be a gang who's looking for them, whatever it is.
“You provide those services and you help them rebuild their lives. And it works.”
Related:
Auckland City Mission's new home
Playing Favourites with Auckland City missioner Helen Robinson
