Sau’s big smile is one of the first things people see when they walk through the doors at HomeGround. As part of our Mau Tangata team, he makes sure that everyone feels welcome at the Mission.

The team, which was established last year, takes a new approach to security, to better serve our community and keep everyone safe.

“I always greet whānau with a ‘good morning’, ‘mōrena’, and do a karakia for them when we open the doors.”

Sau can speak Māori, Samoan and understand Tokelauan, and welcoming street whānau in their own language is one way that he helps them feel at home.

“Part of security is making them feel comfortable when they come in and building relationships. It’s all that whanaungatanga.”

Having spent many years on the streets himself, Sau understands how hard that life is.

“When they walk through that door, whānau are cold, whānau are hungry. We don’t know what happened during the night for them. Some people may be angry, frustrated. I try to relax things, talk to them, understand their issues. As long as we can bring them down to a level that we can talk, then we’re in the right spot.”

“In security, your mouth is the best thing to use. Talk to them, understand their issues.” 

And Sau has noticed a difference with the change of approach to security: “When I first came here, it was always arguments, fighting out there. But now it’s just so calm.”

Sau’s other role at the Mission is to take street whānau out on the Street Guardians programme. A partnership with Auckland Council and MSD, and supported by Heart of the City, the programme gives people opportunities to work with community organisations such as The Tipping Point and Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. It’s a chance to learn new skills and gain valuable work experience.

“I’m really rapt to be part of Street Guardians. Many of our whānau want to work, but they find it hard to get into jobs. Part of what we do is get our whānau CVs. They use their hands, their skills and their minds to do something positive, like planting, weeding and gardening. People see that our whānau can work, that we’ve got a good team here.” 

“I’m there to be that brotherly someone to say ‘you can work’ and give them support.”  

Sau loves the work he does: “I love turning up to work. I enjoy what I do and my work is my therapy. But what’s most important is that we’re a team here. We all work together.”

Meet our Senior Leaders! Introducing our new GM People – Charlotte Hatlauf!

Charlotte oversees our People team. “My role sits across the People team, so everything from recruitment, onboarding, induction, policy and health & safety. I think we’ve gone through a bit of an evolution because of the growth of the organisation and the last few years was about getting some of the foundations right and now it’s time to take the next step.”

Charlotte had been following the Mission for a long time before she joined us. “In 2017 I volunteered for Christmas with a friend of mine and what really struck me was the scale. I’m an immigrant, I left my country of origin because I wasn’t super happy with the way things were going, and what attracted me to New Zealand was how much it’s punching above its weight: the first country to give women the vote; nuclear-free was huge for me coming from Germany; first transgender MP, but I had a bit of blindness thinking that this was the land of milk and honey, and comparatively to other countries it is, but what I’ve really noticed since 2000, is the societal change.”

“When I first arrived here there were only a handful of visibly homeless people in the city but they seemed to be incorporated into society – people knew their names. I’ve really noticed how much that’s changed in 24 years. Some of the fundamental principles that NZ is built on, being so egalitarian and class-less, is really pivoting and changing, and not for the better. So volunteering that Christmas I saw the scale of poverty and despair. It was a real eye opener.”

“The Mission has a history of stepping into that really radical ground movement, like we did in the 80’s with HIV, I was really attracted to that. That has been a driver for me, that this organisation is stepping into the space that a lot of us ignore. I’ve heard Helen speak quite a bit over the years one particular point stuck with me: we have decided as a society that homelessness is acceptable – and we have the power to decide that it is not.

Charlotte’s background is in employment law which lead her into Human Resources. “What I like about it, is it affects all of us. Challenging norms, that’s the sort of stuff that I find interesting. Obviously, it can be a slow burn because those things are culture shifts that don’t happen overnight, but if we have seen anything over the last few years, it’s that it’s possible.”

Outside of work, Charlotte loves to swim, that’s her meditation, “it’s when my brain gets real peace.” She also has an eleven-year-old god child who is the light of her life and two dogs, Freddie Mercury, a mini dachshund and Blondie, a Cavalier King Charles as well as Billy Idol, the cat. “I love exploring Auckland. My best friend and I do a movie every week and I’m a big foodie – eating our way up and down Dominion Road with my friends.”

Asked to share something about herself that people might find surprising, “Being a flight attendant in the late 90’s, which is not something I would want for young women, and the other is that in 2017 I got a really rare neurological disease, it’s called Guillain-Barré syndrome, only about 80 people in NZ get it annually and it took quite some time to be diagnosed. I ended up paralysed from the hip down and had to learn to walk again. I was totally dependent on people and it’s created a huge soft spot I have for Occupational Therapists without who I would be in a wheelchair today. Being struck with GBS was an absolutely fundamentally life changing situation, it was terrifying but it was a life saver as well.

For Housing Keyworker Kevin, personal experience of alcohol and drug addiction inspired him to support others facing the challenges of homelessness and addiction.

When someone experiencing homelessness comes to the Mission needing help, whether they are sleeping on the streets, couch surfing or in emergency housing, they are partnered with one of the keyworkers in our Street-to-Home team. Our keyworkers walk by their side as they navigate the journey through homelessness and into housing.

“It’s really important to get to know them and understand their housing needs to help them find a place that’s appropriate,” explains Kevin, “whether that is a studio, or something bigger for a family. Which areas they can live in, whether they have health issues or other physical conditions. To find them a place that they can call home.”

But it’s not just about finding housing, our keyworkers provide wrap-around support so that people can sustain their housing and live well independently.

“It could be as simple as helping someone to get a food parcel, or accompanying them to a meeting at a WINZ office to access available benefits. It might be connecting them with MSD employment brokers to help them find work. It could be supporting them at a court appearance. They might get support from our occupational therapist to enable them carry out everyday activities like self-care or looking after their homes.”

Our keyworkers can also help people connect with other organisations in the community or reconnect with their family, so they develop their own support networks.

“It’s not our job to do everything. It’s giving people control of the situation and empowering them so they can do it themselves.”

Within the Street-to-Home team, many of the keyworkers have specific areas of expertise or lived experience. Kevin’s personal experience of alcohol and drug addiction is helping him support others facing the challenges of homelessness and addiction which can go side by side.

Kevin was in his mid-thirties when his life fell apart. “I had a good job, I was living in a nice place, but I took a wrong turn in my life.

He lost more than eight years of his life to alcohol and drug addiction. “I look back now and know I’m lucky to be alive.”

“When I was young, I never thought that I would’ve ended up how I did. But addiction can affect anyone. It’s not selective of your social status, your occupation, whether you’re employed or unemployed, male, female, non-binary.”

“The only thing in my life, it was chasing the next high. For eight to ten years. Time doesn’t really matter. You’re not aware of what day it is, which year it is. I was always in debt. I had no sense of wellness. That all goes out the door. It was just chasing the next high.”

“I reached a point where I couldn’t stand to see my reflection. If I walked past a window pane or any glass, I had to look away. It took someone I loved to tell me straight what I had become. I needed to hear those words and I needed to see myself. That’s when I finally reached out for help.”

“The first detox programme didn’t work for me. I was in and out of four or five places. And every time I was out, I went back to using. Until I found a rehabilitation place which really worked for me.”

“While I was there, I started reading again. I found a book about other people’s journeys of being addicted to drugs or alcohol, and I couldn’t put it down. That’s when I knew I wanted to do this work. And that gave me a goal to work towards. I knew that I had to get completely well.”

Kevin has been a housing keyworker in our Street-to-Home team since April 2022.

“I work mainly with people who have alcohol or drug addictions because of my personal experiences. Because I can talk their language. I know exactly what it’s like. I can have those straight, honest conversations with them. I can talk to them from my own experience, and that gives them hope that they can move forward too.”

“I listen and try to understand the driver that will push them to get free from addiction. It could be getting visiting rights with their children, it could be getting a job or them realizing that they are not this person who they have become.”

“When they’re ready, I try to help them to find a detox or rehabilitation programme that will work for them, such as the Medical or Social Detox programmes here at HomeGround. And I continue to support them as they go through the programme.”

“I understand that some places won’t work for them. But I make sure they know the consequences of leaving a programme and that it can take a really long time to be accepted onto another programme. That’s reality. But we keep trying for as long as it takes.”

Our Street-to-Home team works with people until they are ready to move on without our ongoing support. “But we make sure they know they are still part of the Mission and can always come back if they need us.”

“This work is psychologically much harder than the work I did in my past life, but far more satisfying. It means so much more.”

“The most rewarding part of what I do here is hearing two words: Thank you. I rehoused a gentleman recently and he just put his hands around me and just said, thank you, thank you, thank you. And it’s not only the words, it was feeling his joy.”

“A few months ago, someone I had supported came out of rehab and came back to the Mission specifically to find me, to say thank you for putting him through all these programmes and for sticking with him. That’s what this job’s all about.”

For Miki, working at HomeGround is better than living life as crew on superyachts, a life she once enjoyed.

“I just love it here. When I started, I couldn’t believe I got paid to do this!”

Miki started her career in social services after returning from two years’ work on superyachts. She had been cruising the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and the Pacific as a stewardess for the super-rich.

“It was amazing, but what was fascinating is that I went in expecting to see people who were very happy and having so much fun, yet what I found was a lot of sadness.

“My  employers were constantly dealing with business, there was no let-up to the stress.

“I also felt sad seeing such extreme wealth when I knew there were so many people who had nothing.  That’s when I realised it was time to go home and do something meaningful.”

Back in Tāmaki Makaurau, Miki joined Te Tāpui Atawhai mid-2022. “I support clients to sustain their  tenancies and for each person that means something different. One may need a little help to clean their home or develop a routine while someone else might want support to gain employment.

“A big part of my role is to be an advocate because these are people who have not been heard before. We have a duty to ensure that they understand what’s happening so that they can make informed choices. Many cannot identify their needs because they have always been ignored. They’ve been denied the chance to learn who they want to be in this world. Having a place to call home here means they finally have a chance to figure out who they are.

“Our whānau have a hard time out in the world because there’s a lot of judgment out there, but in here, they are accepted for who they are, and they understand each other.

“I have seen people laughing harder here than anywhere else I’ve worked, and I would say that’s because happiness is about connection and community. HomeGround really is a home for our whānau – and I have found my place, too.”