Excitement is high among night shelter staff and trustees after this week’s announcement that building work can begin next month, thanks to some generous donations.
Businessman and Mosgiel Taieri Community Board chairman Andrew Simms and partner Claire Wilson have made a large donation, which alongside a $100,000 grant from the Otago Community Trust, community donations and support from Stewart Construction managing director David Grant, have allowed the work to go ahead.
Fundraising efforts will continue to help cover the costs of the fit-out of the shelter.
Dunedin Night Shelter manager David McKenzie said this "amazing generosity" and that of the community in helping to fund the installation of an on-site garage for storage of food, clothing and bedding, would all be celebrated during Saturday’s open day, from 11am to 3pm.
The garage had been in use for the past year, but the team was keen to have an official opening on Saturday, at 1pm, and to acknowledge the support of the community and volunteers.
"We will have our renovation plans on display as well, so people can take a look at those," Mr McKenzie said.
The night shelter will be renovating the kitchen and lounge, putting in an accessible bedroom and toilet and creating a new office and staff room.
The work will also bring the shelter up to fire code, so that it can increase its capacity back to 12 people per night.
"We have been only able to accommodate six people for the past 18 months, which has been very tough," Mr McKenzie said.
"We have had to turn a lot of people away over that time."
The positive progress at the Dunedin Night Shelter came against a backdrop of "very tough times" for many in the community.
Mr McKenzie said many of the city’s most vulnerable people had been impacted by the loss of accommodation that the shelter could refer people to, leading to a growing "tent city".
One way in which the shelter could help these people was to provide food, bedding and clothing to keep people warm and fed while they were living on the streets.
"And when people are at the night shelter, we can offer some social support to them for if they want to take the next steps.
"We see enough successes for it to be really meaningful," he said.
