Online vitriol about residents of the "Tent City" at Kensington Oval has inspired a small group of Dunedin residents to band together to provide support and give the area a spruce-up.
Sophie Francis-Ross said she was tired of people "bitching" about the situation, so she decided to actually do something about it.
"About a month or so ago, I saw a post on social media from a community member who was angry and complaining, and just had quite a negative perspective about it all.
"They were saying that it’s disgusting and they [the inhabitants] needed to be carted off and they’re vile."
Mrs Francis-Ross disagreed with the person’s assessment of the situation, and believed people needed to show a little more understanding.
"Them being there doesn’t bother me in the sense that I wish they would go away from there.
"What bothers me about them being there is that it’s an uncomfortable thought — I’m concerned for them.
"I wish I could fix whatever has led them to be there, but that problem is so complex and so unique to each individual.
"These people are drowning in addiction and mental health issues."
The online comment bothered her at the time, but she never responded because it would send her down "a rabbit hole".
Then last week she saw another post online saying similar things, and it forced her into action.
"I had commented on their post, and then everyone piled on and I was trying to share my perspective of a more positive outlook, and they were blasting and being negative.
"I just thought, ‘damn it, I’m going to do something about it’.
"I wanted to counteract that negativity and go and do something positive with the anger that I felt towards that person posting, rather than attacking them."
And it did.
"My face is sore from smiling so much.
"I strongly believe in offering support based on the individual, after actually engaging and learning about that person, and giving them support that they’re actually going to use — not trying to force support that I think they should be getting."
While she got a frosty reception initially, she eventually managed to talk to one of the residents and after a while, they all agreed to let the group come in and clean the place up a little.
"I went down there with nothing — all I wanted to do was actually engage with people and just say that I wanted to do whatever I could to help them.
"I just wanted to see if I could make them more comfortable there.
"They were a bit standoffish with me at first because obviously they cop a lot of s... from people.
"It took a minute to break that ice."
A 10-tonne truck-load and a ute-load of rubbish were removed from the site and taken to the Green Island Landfill, she said.
The group also had support from Mitre 10 Mega, which supplied gardening gloves; Musselburgh Pharmacy gave a well-stocked first-aid kit; Mornington Pharmacy provided a sharps container; and Pizza Hut South gave pizzas to feed the crew.
She believed the area looked much tidier and she planned to return every week for the foreseeable future.
"I want to keep my engagement up with them down there.
"I just want to slowly sort things out and get rid of clutter."
