Staff from The Whanau Ora Community Clinic have confirmed that health matters are the least of the problems for many of the families who have been told that they have to move out of their homes. These comments have come from the more than 2700 calls and requests the organisation has received for help since last Saturday.

Director George Ngatai said that most of the families they have engaged with stay in private rental accommodation and now they may have to find somewhere else to stay. He also said that whanau in Kainga Ora homes needing to vacate are frightened that they may have to apply for other accommodation if they do move and say they are staying put. 

Kainga Ora and the Ministry of Social Development are doing their best to support those who have been affected by the flooding and Ngatai says that with the shortage of housing across Auckland we will have more issues over the next 6-8 weeks while these homes are being fixed or rebuilt.

As an organisation we have been working with agencies to try and find short term or even emergency accommodation however most of these are filled and whanau homes are also at the brink.

At the Mangere Emergency Centre we have received more than 20 enquiries a day for accommodation which we have had to refer to Kainga Ora and Strive, one of the local housing providers. We even had to send a few whanau over to Manurewa Marae to have somewhere to stay for the night.

More than 200 of Auckland's flood-damaged homes have been red stickered (meaning uninhabitable) and over 1000 yellow stickered (restricted access). Most of the whanau we speak to don't understand what this means.

Mr Ngatai said that they have a 75 bed apartment block being built on Browns Road in Manurewa which is still 3-4 weeks away and even asked their contractors to see if they can speed that project up to support this short term housing problem. One of the issues is council consents and the team is working through that.

The Project Manager responsible for the building site says they are doing everything they can to get the site ready and confirmed with Mr Ngatai that this could likely happen within the next few weeks. If this occurs then 150-200 whanau may have somewhere to stay while their own homes are being fixed, Ngatai said.

Our facility "Housing Whanau Ora" will be fully furnished and was built for whanau lifestyle living having mix mode accommodation of kaumatua (elders), single parents, employed whanau and rangatahi living in a whanau oriented facility. This facility is close to public transport and will have wrap around services as part of the support.

The Whanau Ora Community Clinic has been one of many providers who have worked 10-12 hours a day to assist families affected by the floods across Northland and Auckland.

For more information contact The Whanau Ora Community Clinic on 0800 123 247 or email aucklandemergency@toa.org.nz

© Scoop Media