Taranaki’s very own Angel
Sometimes a message out of the blue, can make a rough day better. Michelle Ramage has countless rough days hearing from vulnerable families facing hardship with nowhere to go. Their stories are unthinkable and their situations often a result of chance or tragedy. Michelle is a founder and point person for the Roderique Hope Trust, which provides emergency housing to struggling families for up to 12 weeks. It’s a 24-hour job, and one with minimal pay, but a message of gratitude from a former recipient now back on her feet, makes it all worthwhile.
The Trust has five houses in the region; two in Bell Block, one in New Plymouth and two in Hawera. It’s more than Michelle could have pictured three years ago when she, Paul and Joy Russell came up with the idea. Paul and Joy were looking to give back to the community and Michelle had seen the effects of homelessness in her day job as a truancy officer for Tu Tama Wahine.
“In 2015 I started to notice why kids weren’t going to school. Families were coming in and saying, ‘We’ve got nowhere to live,’” Michelle says.
“There’s no one to turn to locally, there are options for singles but nowhere for families. It’s a massive issue in Taranaki and there are no resources to tap into.”
After a brainstorming session the trio decided to put their energy into the growing socioeconomic issue, and the Russells bought the Trust’s first emergency house.
“The house in Bell Block was a dive, it didn’t have a kitchen floor. Paul and Joy gutted it and turned an absolute squalor of a house into something stunning. It says to a family that’s lost all hope and direction, ‘welcome home.’”
It’s the generosity of people like the Russells and fellow landlords who offer up their houses, that make it possible. It’s also local business people who offer their services or hold charity events to raise money for the Trust.
We haven’t by any stretch done this by ourselves. So many people have helped us get to where we are. It’s when businesses and charities join forces and resources combine that we can make tangible and lasting changes.
The board of trustees is formed of local professionals, among them a real estate agent, police officer, communication specialist and an architect. The team flew to Auckland early on to meet with VisionWest Community Trust, an organisation on the same mission to end homelessness and poverty in their communities. It was a field trip to learn all they could from people leading by example, and a trip to confirm they were on the right track.
The Trust isn’t simply out to provide temporary shelter, the goal is life-long changes. Tu Tama Wahine provide social workers who can assist with budgeting, counselling, job and house searches.
If we’ve got healthy people, we’ve got healthy families. And if we’ve got healthy families, we’ve got healthy communities.
But Michelle doesn’t see a respite anytime soon given the government predicts an increase in demand for affordable housing from the soon-to-retire baby boomers. There’s also a current increase of tenants losing homes because their landlords are selling up. The phone rings approximately every 48 hours, and Michelle will always answer because she’s passionate about helping her community. It’s something she believes she was born to do. Often people ask how they can help, and soon the Trust will have a second storage shed to hold donations from the public. Furniture, unused appliances, surplus bedding and towels. Every bit of it helps.