Wellington City Mission Launches Te Pā Maru

Wellington City Mission continues its commitment to people in need with the establishment of Te Pā Maru.

Located on the site of the old Wellington Night Shelter, Te Pā Maru is aimed at providing care for those who were often turned away from support services because of their addiction.

Traditionally, services available for substance users required people to be sober or dry. That won’t be the case for the residents of Te Pā Maru.

Wellington City Missioner, Murray Edridge explains, “In most, if not all, rehabilitation places, you’re required not to be drinking ... That’s very common. These are people who are deeply impacted by the situation that they’re in and can’t just choose to not do it anymore, that’s not real,” he said.

Murray says, “It’s clear that those who experienced homelessness with an alcohol addiction often fall through the gaps”.

At Te Pā Maru, wraparound support would be provided, and it would ensure people were safe, could rest, eat and be cared for. Taking a harm reduction approach, each resident would have an individualised, tailored treatment plan, created in collaboration with their doctor.

Murray concludes, “It’s their journey and for some people it will be an opportunity to fundamentally change their circumstances, for others it might just be a better place than they were.  A great aspiration is that they end up sober or end up having the addiction removed from them. That is not the reality for most of them, so we just want to make that clear in our conversations with the community.”

Work on the transformation of the Night Shelter site continues with an opening expected September. Te Pā Maru will have 18 rooms with en suite bathrooms, kitchen and common lounge areas.