B, a teen girl who moved to Auckland to fight cancer and ended up homeless, is looking forward to not having to share a room with her brothers.
The 16-year-old's family moved from Hamilton to be closer to Starship Hospital, at first staying with B's aunt. But the stress of having 15 people living one house saw them instead end up at west Auckland's Te Puea Marae, which has taken in scores of homeless families in the past few weeks.
"It's been a bit of a challenge, their whole hikoi to come here," marae chairman Hurimoana Dennis said on Monday.
"We're always mindful too that it takes a lot for a dad to put his pride in his pocket, to bring his family here to ask us for help."
The marae on Monday announced it has found a "nice and warm" four-bedroom state house for the family of six -- dad and five kids -- and it was "high-fives" all round.
"It's warm, it's a lot better than their car, it's brand new," says Mr Dennis. "When you see the high-fives happening, you know that something good has happened."
B says it's been tough since her cancer diagnosis, and thanked the marae and its staff and volunteers.
"Now we don't have to worry about being homeless."
Mr Dennis said he's amazed how well B and her siblings have handled the situation.
"Some of these kids have gone through some pretty challenging moments, and B's on record saying she's very proud of her dad. That's all you can ask for."
In the past three weeks, Te Puea Marae has found homes for 65 families. Mr Dennis says it's because they have all the services people need in the one place.
"We don't have to go in the car and go and do something. There's no letter coming your way, there's no phone call that needs to be made... if there's things that need to be tidied up or queried, just go and ask them."
And the first thing they do is get people into houses -- the paperwork can come later.
"These people are transient -- how do you help somebody who's transient?" asks Mr Dennis.
B at Te Puea Marae (Briar Marbeck)
Te Puea Marae only plans to keep its doors open until the end of August, but will keep "boxing on" if the support's there.
"We've been upfront from the start -- we're here for the winter period. We don't think that families, especially kids, should be living in their cars during the winter period."
B's family only moved into the marae on Thursday, but the teenager's condition made finding them a home a priority.
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