Squatters to meet Church

Press, 5 July 1983, Page 8

Squatters to meet Church

PA Auckland Members of a “street family” who have been squatters in a Herne Bay house for three weeks will meet the Archbishop of New Zealand, the Most Rev. Paul Reeves, and Auckland City Council community advisers today, 24 hours after their deadline to be out of the

house. The meeting was arranged at the end of a tense day of discussions between the “street family,” made up of about 40 young people, and the youth adviser for the Auckland City Council, Mr Ted Jones, and two assistants. The “street family” are occupying a nine-bedroom house owned by the Anglican Trust for Women and Children. The house was empty while renovations were being done to prepare it for the new owners, the Auckland City Mission. The secretary-manager of the trust, the Rev. Grevis Goetz, said yesterday that the trust received no financial support from the institutional Anglican Church and this year expected a loss of $165,000. The sale of the house would help to offset this loss. The trust had given the “family” a deadline of noon yesterday

Mr Jones said last evening after his fourth visit to the house yesterday that he had found two houses which

might be suitable for the “family.” He said that Archbishop Reeves had offered to advance bond money and help with immediate rent payments for the homeless group. A spokesman for the “street family,” Montez Ah Wong, said that the group could not move if there was

no alternative place for them to live. “It is too cold to go back on the street,” she said. “We are not rebels, just people trying to fight for human rights.” She said that many of the “family” had been living on the streets for a year. They had been together for that time and wanted to stay together.