Advocate seeks new site for Bexley homeless

An advocate is asking for help finding a new home for roughly 60 homeless people who will soon be forced to leave their makeshift camp in Christchurch.

The Christchurch City Council has told the community they must vacate the red-zoned wetland in Bexley that they occupy by February.

Trudy Burrows, who ran the New Brighton Foodbank, said the decision to move the campers on had been "disappointing but not totally unexpected", as they knew the council planned to legally close the road for wetland restoration. But she said the council had not offered an alternative site for the campers who had nowhere else to go.

"We have been engaging with the council and other social agencies for a while.

"It has just come to that point now where we've got a definite answer. It's a no. They are not going to be able to occupy any other red-zoned land or anywhere else, as far as they're concerned."

She said most of the campers had been at the site for several years.

"The first two, they've been there seven years, and the others came about three years ago.

"They were mainly on the pier, and they're saying that the council actually guided them to go down to that area to stay."

She said the camp had been a supportive community for many of the city's homeless residents.

"They have found purpose in life there because, for the first time in their lives, many of them have felt cared for.

"For many, because they've had the stability of being able to stay there, they've been able to come off drugs or alcohol and their addictions."

She appealed to anyone in the area who might have land or a facility that could be used even as a temporary site for the campers.