The streets of Wel­ling­ton on a day like today are a joy, the sun is shin­ing, the breeze is more balmy than bluster and you prob­ably have a home to go to if you need some cave time.  In Wel­ling­ton the streets are shared with all, and if you head into the CBD you will see suits, stu­dents, hip­sters, chil­dren and gold-card hold­ers util­ising pub­lic space along­side street people and alco­hol­ics.  Auck­land is respond­ing to the chal­lenges of in-your-face social prob­lems by con­sid­er­ing a bylaw to force home­less people off the streets by mak­ing the police respons­ible for mov­ing the prob­lem around. Good luck with that one. 

Wel­ling­to­ni­ans can­’t afford to be smug about the issue but at least the focus is on a range of solu­tions includ­ing a wet hostel and liquor bans.  There was plenty of thought­ful dis­cus­sion over at Poneke about this issue last year.

Prac­tic­al sup­port and assist­ance for homeless/street people has tra­di­tion­ally been provided by gov­ern­ment agen­cies, churches and volun­teer groups.  People are out there get­ting on with doing good work in the com­munity every day.  This is where you come in, do you have three hours a fort­night to spare?  Cata­combs is a drop-in centre on Man­ners Street, upstairs next to Cos­mic Corner.  Cata­combs star­ted out as a youth club under St Peter’s Church on Wil­lis Street in the 60s or 70s and moved above ground to a premises that ulti­mately ended up as bypass.  In its cur­rent incarn­a­tion Cata­combs has no reli­gious affil­i­ation and the place is run by a com­mit­tee of twelve volun­teers who provide super cheap hot drinks in a sit­ting room type atmo­sphere.  People come in, get some tea and shel­ter, watch TV, read the paper etc.

Volun­teers are needed to staff the centre three hours a fort­night. Slots include:

  • 7.30pm ‑10.30pm on weeknights
  • 11.30am – 2.30pm on Sat­urdays and Sundays
  • 2.30pm – 5.30pm on Sat­urdays and Sundays.

Call Bar­bara on 803 8527 or email babs.burke@gmail.com if you want to be involved.