Wellington City Mission plans to refurbish night shelter, as council apologises about previous squalid conditions

Monday, 15 March 2021

The former night shelter on Taranaki St is due to be refurbished.

Wellington City Mission has called an apology from council “nice but unnecessary', while moving ahead with plans to refurbish the former night shelter where faeces, urine and rat droppings were previously found.

Wellington City Council last week apologised for a “lack of care” and an “unacceptable physical environment” at the former Wellington Night Shelter, despite an independent review mostly clearing them of blame. That review followed Wellington City Mission’s own damning report into squalid conditions at the shelter when they took over last April.

City Missioner Murray Edridge said council was ultimately not responsible for those conditions.

“It was very nice that they chose to apologise to residents and their families,” Edridge said. “I’m not sure they needed to do that. Wellington City Council weren’t responsible for what we found in the building when we took over.”

The fault was mostly with the previous management of the Wellington Night Shelter, Edridge said.

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Wellington City Missioner Murray Edridge on the day the City Mission took control of the night shelter, now known as Te Paamaru.

Wellington City Mission was satisfied with the review and planned to move ahead with plans to refurbish the site, now known as Te Paamaru.

“Firstly to maintain the longevity of the building,” Edridge said, referring to routine maintenance work needed at the premises.

“But secondly to redevelop bedrooms into the ground floor space, and to create a common area and staff offices for assessment work.”

Seven additional beds would be added, alongside new rooms where staff could assess the needs of people as they arrived at the building. The ground floor previously included individual partitions, “essentially cubicles that didn’t preserve the dignity” of people using them. These have already been demolished, he said.

The refurbished Te Paamaru would include 29 rooms, including a combination of crisis beds and longer-term transitional beds.

Te Paamaru had operated as transitional housing since Wellington City Mission took over in April.

Edridge expected work to begin soon but would know exactly when in the coming weeks. The building would need to be vacated for three to four months while the renovations were made, with residents moved into alternative accommodation. Edridge hoped Te Paamaru would be ready for occupation again by the middle of the year.

“It’s not a major refurbishment that’s required, but we do need to get some construction crews into the building,” he said.

The council’s grants subcommittee was due to discuss the 44-page review into council’s role at the former Wellington Night Shelter at a meeting on Wednesday this week.

Independent contractor Karen Wallace, who compiled the review, found council mostly acted appropriately while funding the shelter. But Wallace also found areas to be improved.

Council officers should have followed up about an overdue report from the Wellington Night Shelter and made sure “potential risk events” were escalated to management in time. Councillors should have also been better briefed.