By Torika Tokalau of Local Democracy Reporting
A community foodbank and drop-in centre in South Auckland is looking for a new home after years of frustration at a troublesome site.
Waka of Caring’s Debbie Munroe raised her concerns at the Manurewa Local Board meeting on Thursday last week, asking the board to consider a new home for them.
Munroe said she spent all night cleaning up on Wednesday because faulty plumbing had flooded the building with sewage water, ruining bags of donated clothes.
“We need to be given a break, I need to be given a break. I’ve been doing this work for 11 years, I have not given up, with all the issues and the barriers I have faced.
Waka of Caring has been open since 2020 but Munroe has been helping the South Auckland community for much longer than that.
The centre, currently based on Mahia Rd on a commercial property, Manurewa, provides food and support for the homeless and vulnerable communities.
“Our building constantly floods, I’m over it,” Munroe said.
“We’ve been working our butts off for this community, we don’t get anything back and we don’t want to but we do the work because we love it.”
Munroe said they currently paid $67,000 a year to rent their headquarters, but was hoping the local board would consider leasing Tadmor House to them for $35,000.
Tadmor House, a council-owned building, was currently closed because of mould and safety issues.
Munroe said the Mahia Rd property wasn’t fit for purpose anymore, with issues like flooding, electrical problems and broken windows.
“I have stood my ground and I think we’ve proven that we’re just as good as any organisation out there.
“We would not be so well resourced by the community and organisations would not continue coming to us for help. We have proven it and we need some help from you guys.”
They had asked the board for help five years ago, but were told there was nothing they could do.
“That hall (Tadmor) breaks my heart, there’s so much we can do.”
Manurewa Local Board chair Matt Winiata said they couldn’t lease Tadmor Hall to Waka of Hope because it was closed for assessment.
“We don’t have a lot of buildings to offer, we have a need but we just don’t have the resources to deliver,” Winiata said.
“I understand Tadmor, it is appealing, and we can look at that in the future … at this point we are stuck between a rock and a hard place with Tadmor.”
He said for now, they could help with getting Munroe and her team advice about their current building.
