Homeless man’s hopes crushed

A homeless man says it is "hard to feel hope" after his makeshift shack burned down at the Oval in a cooking fire.

City leaders said the fire, and the plight of other people living in tents at the Oval, was symptomatic of a desperate shortage of government funding for housing and wrap-around support for the city’s homeless.

Fire crews responded at 7.45am yesterday and found the shack and several tents on fire at the edge of the sports field.

The man said he had "no confidence" he would now get a home or the support he needed.

Without a home, he said he had "no way forward" and it was "hard to feel hope". He had built the shack at the Oval a few weeks ago after previously living in a boarding house that had been sold.

Support he had received from one charity was inadequate for his needs, he said.

Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich and Labour MP Ingrid Leary went to the scene of the fire.

Mr Radich said it was regrettable that his previous plan to turn the abandoned Aaron Lodge holiday park — owned by Kāinga Ora — into temporary housing with support had not been given central government funding.

"The local social agencies are ready to step up, but we need a site and we need government support.

He was "extremely relieved" no-one had died in the fire, but it should "put the government on notice that action is needed. Winter is coming, and with it the cold temperatures that will only make a bad situation worse".

Ms Leary said the city was "desperately short" of housing and help for homeless people, particularly those with serious addictions and mental illness.

"Bigger cities have comprehensive services and we have nothing of that kind. It is a travesty people are living in tents and shacks in sub-zero temperatures and high winds and expected to survive the winter while also being under pressure to get employment when they are nowhere near ready to do that because they don’t have wrap-around support."

She said the dramatic drop in emergency housing grants in Dunedin — the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) has approved just 18 grants for short stays in emergency accommodation over the six months from October to March 2025 compared with 147 for the same period a year ago — was "reflective of the seriously mean approach of this government, which is completely out of touch with the realities of struggling New Zealanders".

Dunedin Night Shelter manager David McIntyre said the shelter knew that five people had been sleeping at the Oval, including people with alcohol and drug addictions, and added his call for more expert, residential care.

"There needs to be specialist and urgent care for people with addictions particularly," he said. Charities were working together, but within a "restricted funding environment".

Methodist Mission director Laura Black said the biggest need was social service funding to help people stabilise, gain skills to live independently and have conditions such as mental illness and addiction diagnosed and treated appropriately.

"It’s easy enough to solve the temporary roof problem; build more. But if we ignore the other transitional needs, then we will see these kinds of near and actual disasters occur. Social services can’t do work we’re not paid for."

MSD regional director Sue Rissman said the government department was "very concerned" about the fire and emergency housing was a "last resort".

People sleeping rough were urged to contact MSD.