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Strategic Partnership
Wise Trust – The People’s Project
The People’s Project has been established because many people in Hamilton
are concerned about people who are homeless. No single organisation alone
has the ability to solve the challenging problem. This led to the development
of The People’s Project which has set an ambitious goal - to solve
homelessness in Hamilton by 2016.
to enact systematic changes to address the underpinning
issues that lead to homelessness.
There have been a growing number of success stories
with people being housed and supported in numerous
other ways.
“The People’s Project has assisted 95 people into homes
in its first 10 months and we have a 90 per cent retention
rate,“ says Julie Nelson. “We still have a long way to go to
achieve our goal but I’m proud of the success our team
and our clients have created in less than one year. We are
looking forward to our second year and the new ways we
can support people back to independent living.”
Trust Waikato is pleased to be supporting The People’s
Project with a two-year strategic funding partnership of
$70,000 per year.
Led by Wise Group and its Chief Executive, Julie Nelson, The
People’s Project brings together Waikato District Health Board,
Adult Community Mental Health and Addiction Services,
Hamilton City Council, Ministry of Social Development, NZ
Police, Corrections, Housing New Zealand, Hamilton Central
Business Association, Midland Health Network, Te Puni
Kōkiri and other agencies, all focused on a community wide
response to homelessness.
Julie Nelson says, “People sleeping rough is a complex issue
and it will take many of us working together to solve it. We are
in the early stages and we don’t have all the answers yet. We
do know that it will take a city wide approach to wrap around
the services people need. We have a great team working on
this project who are focused on doing whatever is needed to
achieve the goal of eliminating homelessness in Hamilton.”
Operating from its base in Garden Place since September
2014, The People’s Project has a core staff of five people
and partner organisations also provide additional staff for
the project.
Every day there are more and more people knocking on its
doors asking for help. Those people are disproportionately
made up of those with mental health and addiction issues,
and some have criminal justice histories. The data indicates
that the largest group are male and Māori.
With the support of the Project’s partner agencies and
community links, staff work with individuals experiencing
homelessness to assist them into housing and connect them
with income, health, employment, addictions and other
support services they may need. A larger goal of the project is
STRATEGIC FUNDING
partnership
95
PEOPLE
INTO HOMES
$70,000
TRUST WAIKATO
DONATION 2014
T RUST WA I K ATO
ANNUA L R E POR T
2 0 1 5
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