‘Street kids’ seek home

Press, 26 November 1982, Page 1

‘Street kids’ seek home

Christchurch’s "street kids" need a place to live and a group of them have banded together to arrange emergency housing. They met last evening in the Unemployment Collective’s office in Cashel Street to discuss fund-raising and other plans. It was the fourth meeting called but the first open to reporters. A group of seven former "street kids" and four youth workers attended.

Three of the seven were among those who slept out in the Barbadoes Street cemetery in 1980. They were unwilling to be named. To assist with fund-raising and with applications for emergency housing, they have applied to be registered as an incorporated society. The name, yet to be approved, is Te Roopu Awhina, which means “the giving group."

All those at the meeting said that they now had accommodation,’ although • in one case, that meant eight people sharing a -two-bed-room flat.

The group they wished most to attract were people aged 15 and 16 who had, for different reasons, left home and who were too young to qualify for the unemployment benefit.

Members of. the jChristchurch. ’ City Council, the Social Welfare Department, and. church' groups -had' attended : previous, meetings and had responded “very sympathetically”. . to .- their aims, the young people said. ; The- need .for housing was urgent because The “street kid” population tended to increase over- the .summer holiday period. .; •<" J ” “That is when.' they start releasing them from, institutions and. they haye no place to? go, get. into ■ trouble, and. finish’ up “back th‘ere,” one said. ? They have arranged adults to supervise the. home should they get; ona It.,Would be 'openall the time and would be run .with as,; few rules as ; possible; /Alcohol,- drugs, and gangs would' be - banned and' gang members would, be accepted oply as indiVldiials.. ~ Few. ;“street’kids” had at-' tended the .-/meeting, they said? because’.. they. * were “rather ;shy.” hrid ’also because they had to.organise a place to sleep for the. night. .The seven thought that, because they had “been through the mill,” they-would

best be able to help those who were on the streets now.

“We know where they are coming from because we have been there ourselves not very long ago and it is still fresh in our minds,” one said.

, The idea of the scheme was to “catch those that slip through the social welfare net,” one of the youth workers said.

' Asked how many children were homeless in Christchurch, they said that it was impossible td- calculate be'cause it. was a fluctuating population and the numbers changed, daily. Few were ion the streets out* of choice, they said. Sortie had . left home for personal, jeasons, others had been asked to-leave, and some had been released from institutions.

They were sleeping in abandoned cars, ' empty houses, and on the riverbanks, they said.

The ‘ assistant director of social work for the Social ‘Welfare Department in Christchurch, Mr- D. Seller, was reluctant to estimate how many children were ‘homeless in the city, but said that “street kids” existed “without a doubt.”

The Anglican City Missioned the Rev. David Morrell, also said that some children were sleeping out in Christchurch. Their ages ranged from 14 to 18, he said, and there were “50 and upwards” in the central city and others in the suburbs. -

The plight of “street Rids” will be a priority of the new Social Advisory Council headed by a former Minister of Education and High Commissioner to London, Mr L. W. Gandar, the Press Association reports. The council, replacing the. Social Development Council and Council of Social Services, has already been asked to look at homeless young Be in urban areas by the ter for Social Welfare, Mr Young.

As well as the “street kids” problem, Mr Young said he also wanted the council to look at rehabilitating disabled people in the community, and .the provision of social welfare services. He' would also ask the-council io consider whether the benefit system was doing the job it was designed, for. The council’s private members are a former Planning Council member, . Mrs Heather Little, of Hawarden;

a Council of Social Services member, Mrs Elsie Tillet, of Birkenhead: a Dunedin City councillor, Mrs lona Williams; a Social Development. Council member, the Rev. Peter McCormick, of Palmerston North; a Wellington businessman, Mr Bruce Judge; and an Arawa Trust Board member, Mr Para Bennett.