A place to belong

For more than 100 years The Salvation Army has been helping homeless people in Auckland through the Epsom Lodge Supportive Accommodation Unit, giving thousands of people more than just a roof over their heads.

Jay can’t remember how he got to Epsom Lodge. He knows he weighed 40kg and was very sick from years of homelessness and addictions.

His transformation to healthy business owner and dad has been so radical, a staff member at Epsom Lodge doesn’t recognise him when we meet.   

Jay started smoking aged eight, was an alcoholic at 16 and a drug addict by 18, after a childhood of sexual abuse and trauma.  

He became an angry, violent man. ‘I was mixed up with all sorts—gangs and that really bad side of life. I destroyed everything around me. My family wouldn’t talk to me—they were terrified
of me.’

Soon he was homeless, moving from addict’s house to addict’s house across Auckland, living on couches, making sporadic attempts to change, till he finally ended up sleeping rough and begging.
When his son was born, Jay wasn’t allowed to see him. That and the years of pain and illness spurred him to try to change his life again.

‘I was sick and I was tired. I was living over in Grey Lynn Park and I was looking at going to jail. I thought, “My son’s going to grow up thinking his dad’s always in jail.” I don’t remember how, but I ended up here.’
Where Jay ended up was one of The Salvation Army’s longest running services in New Zealand.

Epsom Lodge was founded in 1897 and moved to its current site in upmarket Epsom in 1898. The lodge has been through many changes since. When it began, the law said anyone leaving prison must have somewhere to go. If a man didn’t have somewhere, they were sent in a horse and cart up to Epsom Lodge, Captain Doug Newman says. Doug and wife Captain Janet Newman have just left Epsom Lodge after managing it for four years.

They still pick some clients up from the prison gates, but today they take homeless men and women from the streets, cars and homes they’re forced to leave. They have services for youth and pregnant women. They’ve done long-term care and short-term care. The lodge even burnt down in 1927 and has been through several rebuilds, but the clients haven’t changed, Doug says.

‘It’s the dynamics of humanity. We deal with the collateral damage of government policy and social progress. The system doesn’t catch everybody. There’s always someone who slips through the cracks and we’re the crack slipper catchers,’ he says with a grin.

Bernadette Collins agrees. She’s worked at Epsom Lodge for 24 years, starting part-time on reception and now oversees accounts and working with Work and Income helping clients get benefits. She also plays piano at the lodge’s weekday chapel services and does pretty much anything else needed, Janet says. Bernadette’s seen nine managers, a rebuild and thousands of clients. The faces change, but the reasons people are homeless stay the same, she says. 

Those reasons, Janet says, can be hugely complex; a combination of factors including financial issues, relationship breakdowns, violence, addiction, mental health and more.

Before a person moves into Epsom Lodge they’re assessed by a staff member to work out their needs and if the lodge can take them. The lodge has 96 beds, but even if there is space, sadly not everyone is suitable. Safety has to be considered, along with the person’s motivation, Janet says.

A Fresh Start

When clients arrive they’re seen by the nurse, and then usually spend their first few days relaxing and getting their head straight from all they’ve been through, Janet says. Then they make a plan with a caseworker to get them ready to live in their own place again. Plans can involve counselling, mental health support, addiction treatment, courses including budgeting, ready to work and tikanga Māori and further study. Clients who go to addiction treatment usually stay five to six weeks at Epsom Lodge first, and some come back after.

Clients can come and go as they please during the day, and when they’re ready, some clients use the lodge’s nearby transitional house where they can live independently, but with regular support. Help can continue when a client moves out, through things like providing frozen meals for a few days, or furniture from a Family Store for unfurnished flats, Janet says.

Still Human

Clients come from all areas of society, but they share many things in common, Doug says. ‘They’re people who are bursting with skills and passion. There are writers and singers and artists, but it’s like life’s circumstances have just crushed them into a block, where society treats them all the same and gives them the same value.

It can take a while, but a privilege of the job is seeing someone’s true personality and abilities coming out. Something Bernadette says has led to some of her favourite memories. Much of Epsom Lodge’s work can be to give or restore a person’s sense of worth, although that’s not always easy for people who have been ground down by life, she says.

‘When we did our last upgrade, some of the clients, when they saw the new room, new bed, new sheets and everything came and said, “I have to leave, because I don’t deserve this.” They were people who had never ever had new anything in their lives and it was quite difficult to convince some of them that this was for them.’

Those who’ve been on the streets for a long time find it hardest to adjust, Janet says. ‘We’ve had a number of streeties who will take their blankets and sleep outside because they’re not comfortable in four walls. They like to see the stars.’

Every client and staff member talks about people looking for and finding a sense of belonging through Epsom Lodge. Sometimes those at Epsom Lodge become the family or community a person needs. But for some even just the basic routines, like three meals a day and a bed can make an incredible difference, Jay says. ‘It taught me stability. It taught me things I never really knew—how to sleep normally, how to eat breakfast, eat lunch, eat tea. I hadn’t eaten breakfast my whole life.’

After a month at Epsom Lodge, Jay moved to Auckland Bridge for addiction treatment. From there he worked for six months, before he had a relapse and went back to the Bridge for help. ‘I woke up in the Bridge and realised—I don’t have any qualifications, I’m 32 and I’m not capable of passing any of these job interviews.’

A sad reality of the work Epsom Lodge does is that for many, things don’t work out the first time. It’s the nature of the people and the demons they battle, Doug says. A few come back repeatedly, which could be frustrating, but Doug and Janet see it differently.

‘They never go back to the same place as when they came in—they always take something good from here,’ Janet says.

Doug tells the story of a man who disappeared and returned a few months later.

‘He was in a bad place and he was quite ashamed. He looked up at me with his head down and he said, “I’m sorry, I’ve disappointed you.” And I said, “I think this is wonderful.” He said, “Why’s that?” And I said, “Because with all the stuff you’re going through, you thought to come back here.”’

Celebrating Success

The complex issues clients live with and living close to others can make things tough at times—but Bernadette says it helps to remember what they’re going through. When clients blow off steam, she says, it ‘doesn’t bother me in the slightest’ and they almost always apologise later.

It does take a certain character to work at Epsom Lodge, though, she says. She laughs remembering her job interview when two senior staff members took her for a tour, including through a courtyard where the men would congregate during the day. ‘There were a few with colourful language. It was a test, I think, to see how I would cope.’

You have to laugh, she says. And even the sad times can have funny moments. Like the time, in her early days, when the police came to help move a sick client to a mental health institution. ‘He took off and it was a bit of keystone cops with people running about the place as he knew where to go and they didn’t.’

Another key is to celebrate every victory, and staff share success stories during weekly staff meetings. Success for a client can be as small as getting out of bed, or washing, Bernadette says. Or it could be someone spending their first week off alcohol, Janet says, and every victory is a huge and often hard-won step by the client.

It can sound overwhelming, but Bernadette says serving such vulnerable people is a huge privilege. ‘At the end of the day you go home and you feel like you’ve helped someone, it’s as simple as that.’

And then there are the big successes, like Jay, who took his chance and battled on. It was a long road, working as a gardener, but through determination and people’s kindness he saved enough to start his tree care and landscaping business. It was all from people giving him a chance, he says. These days he’s proud of his life and his business, where he tries to provide that chance and support to others like him.

‘I look at where I came from; now I provide eight jobs for people, I support my son and I’m a good person, and I’m thankful to God. And [Epsom Lodge] was a stepping stone. This was my chance.’

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by Robin Raymond (c) 'War Cry' magazine, 11 June 2016, pp 5-7
You can read 'War Cry' at your nearest Salvation Army church or centre, or subscribe through Salvationist Resources.