Kia ora whānau!

By Erika Vas, 2nd year MDP student

As mentioned in my last blog post, I cam completing my international field placement interning at The Lifewise Trust, focusing on areas of housing and homelessness, mental health and addiction, community and land development, and infrastructure. My placement has provided me with diverse opportunities to take my learnings from the office, to the streets, and to be welcomed by whānau into their communities. The time I’ve spent with whānau has been impactful, and has been a personal journey as much as an academic one for me.

In choosing my field placement, I wanted to pursue my passions, and continue to learn and grow in the field of housing and homelessness. Having focused my Major Research Project on on-reserve housing in Canada, and through my involvement with the Institute for Urban Studies (IUS) at the UW, my Supervisor, Dr. Jino Distasio was pivotal in supporting me to pursue my placement in Tamaki, and in connecting me with the Lifewise Trust. The IUS and Lifewise share a common thread of Housing First (HF), as Lifewise has modelled their program after that of Winnipeg’s and looks to Canada as a leader in HF, especially given Winnipeg’s Indigenous focus.

As mentioned by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, “HF was launched in Auckland with Government and Auckland Council funding in March 2017, and expanded to Christchurch, Tauranga and Hamilton in 2018”. HF is offered in multiple cities and areas in Aotearoa, including and Rotorua (where I completed my placement). HF is an international approach to solve social issues of housing and homelessness, recognizing that if we are to solve the issue of homelessness, we need to put people first. This approach supports individuals with multiple, high, and complex needs, knowing that when people are housed, they can be supported to address their complex needs.

During my placement, I had the chance to learn from HF whānau, Peer Support Leaders, Key Workers and Senior Practitioners in both Tamaki (Auckland) and Rotorua. I’m grateful to have been included in home visits, tenant lease agreements, home inspections, housing workshops & meetings, radio and tv interviews, and days spent shadowing these wonderful teams.

It was very interesting for me to note the similarities and differences in HF delivery internationally (between Canada and Aotearoa) and also within Aotearoa. The strength of HF comes from its ability to be localized and adapted to meet the needs of the people. For example, in Canada, the city of Toronto implemented an Anti-racism/Anti-oppression intervention, whereas there was an Indigenous-focused, trauma-informed intervention. I was able to see the differences in localization of HF in Tamaki and Rotorua (which are considerably closer than Winnipeg and Toronto), and because of the history, community ties, geography, and the ways in which relationships were present in these cities, their deliveries were also diverse. Rotorua HF is a partnership between Lifewise, Te Taumata O Ngāti Whakaue Iho Ake Trust and LinkPeople, making it the first Iwi-led Housing First Collective in Aotearoa, grounded in a kaupapa Māori approach.

As I reach the end of my placement, I am looking forward to returning to Rotorua to return to friends, help with preparations for The Big Sleep Out, and participate in this great event. I’ve spent quality time with Housing First Rotorua and I’ve seen firsthand how they are changing lives - beyond meeting immediate needs, but letting whānau lead & giving them a chance to thrive. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate this time here than spending a night with whānau, coming together over kai and stories, and raising awareness and funds for this community, supporting them in their community-driven work.

Aroha nui.

My placement with LIFEWISE, Aotearoa

By Erika Vas, 2nd year MDP student

From June to September 2019, I am fortunate to be completing my international field placement with the Lifewise Trust in Tamaki, Aotearoa. The Lifewise Trust (LIFEWISE), Airedale Property Trust (APT), and Methodist Mission Northern (MMN) operate interpedently in order to work towards the vision of connected, just, and inclusive communities. Each Trust is dedicated to family and community resilience, from working with people and families directly, to providing financing and infrastructure which makes this work possible.

In choosing my international placement, I wanted to continue to learn and grow in the fields of housing and homelessness, community and land development, and infrastructure. Based out of the University of Otago building, Airedale Property Trust, Methodist Mission Trust (Splice), and Lifewise share one main office. This office is a busy, but united hub of activity, from property management, community building, youth homelessness initiatives, fundraising, research, development and practice and much more. I am working among many individuals who are committed to making homelessness rare, brief, and non-reoccurring and are keen on sharing their work and experience with me.

I have been welcomed into the Lifewise Practice & Development Team and have focused on Housing First (HF) projects. I have analyzed and interpreted documents to create briefing documents for government officials, I am currently working on collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data gathered by the HF program in Auckland, with the goal of reporting how the program might be improved or developed, informing community service providers on the wants and needs of whānau, and reporting on the realities of the health and wellness of whānau to external stakeholders, I have completed research on IPS Supported Employment (Individual Placement Support), and documenting the Kaupapa Māori / iwi-led model that is being used for the delivery of HF in Rotorua. While simultaneously working on these projects, I’ve been a part of the Tamaki community, going on home visits with the HF Team, attending community events such as the Piki Toi Artist Exhibition, standing in solidarity with whānau to protect Ihumatao , celebrating the opening of the Pitt Street residence (a HF home, but also an artists’ collective), attending symposiums related to Marae housing and HF, and participating in The Big Sleep Out in Rotorua, for one night, coming together with community and business leaders and to experience what it’s like sleeping rough, getting a taste of life on the streets, and raising critical funds to prevent homelessness.

I would like to say a BIG Tēnā Koutou to all my whānau Aotearoa. Learning about Maori culture, sharing stories, and experiencing the beauty of the people, language, and land has been a life-changing journey that I’m grateful to have shared with all of you.

Ka kite anō au i a koutou.

Amui Djor Communal Housing Shared Grid-Tied Solar Project

By Elijah Osei-Yeboah, 1st year MDP student

The Communal Housing Project at Amui Djor. Photo: PD

In my first blog, I mentioned that I helped to implement development projects. This blog will focus on one of those projects ― the Amui Djor Communal Housing Shared Grid-Tied Solar Project. The housing component of the project was completed before I started my field placement. It was funded by foreign donors (governments of the UK, Sweden, and Norway; and Slums Dweller’s International). The housing component is a good model for pro-poor housing and I am happy I got to know this because there are not many of them.

The urban poor in Ghana often live in slums since they cannot afford decent accommodation and that was the case in this area prior to the project. They were under constant threats of eviction but PD, the leading implementing institution bought the land and set up a temporary accommodation for them. Then they built a 3 storey house for 31 households. Mortgages are very uncommon in Ghana and the few banks which provide them do so at astronomical interest rates. But the apartments were sold to the beneficiaries at below market rates and the payments were spread over 10 years. The money which will be recovered from the project will be used to scale it up.

Community Housing Project. Source: PD

Provision of solar energy was the other component and it was one of the major things I did during my placement. The solar energy was intended to be a secondary power source since power outages can be very frequent in Ghana. During my placement, power supply was fairly stable but in bad times, the power may be on for only 12 hours a day. Households lose a lot of frozen food and this makes life difficult particularly in this day and age where busy work schedules make frozen food very attractive. Businesses which are heavily dependent on electricity are forced to adopt one or more of these measures ‒ lay workers off, completely shut down, increase product or service prices ‒ in order to deal with the high production cost resulting from running expensive fuel-powered generators. For households, kids in school are unable to study or do their homework at night and diseases which are triggered by extremely hot temperatures increase in incidence. 

Amui Djor Solar Energy Project

My tasks included computing household energy consumption levels for managing energy consumption, creating accounts for managing power purchases, sensitizing the beneficiaries about the intended benefits of the project and its utilization, determining the conditions of works for the vendor, and setting up an office for the vendor.