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With its premises being listed for sale, Queenstown community support centre Happiness House is looking for another home.
Though its lease does not expire until October 2028, its trustees are asking now, rather than at the 11th hour, for ideas on where it could be located — preferably in Frankton.
Chair Jen Geale says their longtime premises in central Queenstown’s Park St — for which the council reimburses their rent — "might get purchased by someone who’s prepared to keep it there for a little while, but at the end of the day we do need to be moving from that location".
"We need to be out sort of Frankton way — we want to be where our community is, and obviously our community’s moving more that way.
"We’re an organisation that’s been supporting the community for 35 years, but we’re turning around and saying, ‘actually, we might need a bit of community support ourselves, at this point’."
Geale says they’re inviting people to a session at Sherwood on July 16 at 6pm — "they’ve gifted us the venue" — to throw ideas around.
Although a community hub is being planned in Frankton, they’re after a house with a garden like they have now — "it’s hard to imagine not having that".
She also accepts there will be planning issues — "you can’t necessarily just drop a community centre anywhere".
Geale says they’re also open to sharing premises with, say, Citizens Advice Bureau, which they already have a bit of cross-over with.
She’s in no doubt there’s a continuing, and, in fact, growing need for Happiness House — in the past financial year there were almost 15,000 visitors, up 20% from the year before.
"[Queenstown] is glossy on the outside, but what we see is a lot of people struggling.
"They’re either financially struggling or socially struggling, which is what we’re there for as well — to deal with that loneliness, isolation and disconnect that’s a big part of the community."
