Care And Mana Beyond Central Wellington

When Karen joined DCM’s Aro Mai Housing First team in Lower Hutt, she didn’t realise how much it would change her. Coming from a background in government and HR, she had heard negative stereotypes about homelessness and wasn’t sure what to expect. But something in her knew she had to help. “I knew there was something more I needed to do, and I believe this was it.”

DCM’s small but determined Lower Hutt team works with some of the most marginalised people in the region, many referred by Corrections or MSD. Unlike in central Wellington, they support more families. “It’s hard watching kids grow up in motels, going to school from emergency housing. But because we’re here, we can reach farther, do more, and react quickly for people who might otherwise be lost.”

For Karen, this work is deeply personal. “Almost all of our whānau have complex needs, often mental health struggles, and that can be difficult. But we don’t let them slip through our fingers. I think they have slipped through enough gaps in the system. So we are passionate about supporting them and bestowing as much mana as we can on them. I feel very strongly about this.”

She remembers a man who had been in a gang, now determined to build a new life for his daughter. “I got him housed, and now he takes so much pride in his whare (house). It’s the cleanest house you’ve ever seen. One day I visited, and he was wearing an apron, making bread. I thought, oh my gosh, if only they could see you now.”

Karen wishes more people understood the reality of homelessness. “There just aren’t enough houses. But we are here, working so hard to get people off the streets, trying to help.”