Mere and her son Rewi moved to Auckland last year after a relationship breakdown with her ex-husband. Mere could no longer continue living in a toxic marriage where her ex-husband was having relationships with several other women and where Mere was subjected to cruel and degrading treatment.  

Mere and her son moved to Auckland and lived with a friend in an overcrowded three-bedroom property with five adults and eight children, sleeping in the lounge with nothing in the way of privacy.  It was also really hard for this family to settle down due to not having any whanau connections in Auckland, although but Mere’s parents often visited from Hamilton to tautoko (support) them. 

The family moved to Monte Cecilia’s transitional housing and engaged proactively with all supports that were offered to achieve their housing goals. Monte Cecilia supported Mere with a housing plan that focused on teaching her to navigate through various systems to get the support she needed.

With Monte Cecilia’s help she was able to get free counselling through a local GP and enrol into a local marae, Family Start programme and was able to access subsidies for Early Childhood Education, free food parcels, baby items and furniture.

“I was very impressed by this young mother’s positive attitude, which was her main drive to achieving all her housing goals,” a Monte Cecilia staff member who worked with Mere said. “Mere and her son continue to engage in our outreach service and on a recent phone call Mere expressed her gratitude to Monte Cecilia for all the supports where they were able to achieve their main goal which was to find appropriate and affordable home.”