Wairarapa’s locally owned community newspaper
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 2020
INSIDE: Music icon Ljinon Manson farewelled P31
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Lisa Urbani “Winter is coming” he said ominously, and when I saw the tents sheltering under a tree, next to a river, I shivered in the autumn chill. He wanted me to call him the ‘old fella’ for the purposes of this story, but truth be told, he is only 55, but looks much older. One of 14 children who
grew up in a small rural town, he is polite and soft-spoken. His alcoholic parents fed him porridge with cigarette butts and he ate it because the alternative was no breakfast. They taught him to steal at an early age, how to break into houses and sadly he says he never had a childhood. He is very open about the fact that his life has
THE BIG
been a litany of despair, drugs, alcohol, sojourns in prison, and in his younger years, gangrelated activities, but he says he has “regrets for my decisions.” Now he is homeless, living in two tents, with two other homeless men, on the outskirts of Masterton, eking out an existence. His sickness benefit of $180 per week will not
cover both rent and food, so he had to choose. He and his friends often get told to move and then have to find new shelter. People abuse them or try to rob them. They look out for each other, protecting each other’s belongings and have unspoken rules about not leaving a mess and not asking too many questions, each person
tells their story in their own time. Their tent is neat and organised, and they have made a makeshift table with a plank and tyres. The old fella says they are at the “bottom of the barrel and the only way is up”, their life is literally reduced to one day at a time. His honesty and willingness to share his story takes courage.
“We are human, the more support we get, kai, a shower, watch some TV, the more we have a sense of something to hold on to,” the old fella says. Masterton Foodbank coordinator Lyn Tankersley drew my attention to the homeless. Continued on page 3
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