Love Soup warming for Rotorua homeless

Love Soup warming for Rotorua homeless

A Rotorua-based community group is taking a new approach to helping the homeless and they're calling the service a "wrap-around" approach.

A hot meal in the tiny soup kitchen is usually the first point of contact with Love Soup Rotorua.

Justin McLean is one of those in need of a helping hand. He doesn't have a permanent home and is currently boarding with a friend, but that means no money left for food.

"A few of us used to stay out on the street, but Love Soup helps us out," says Mr McLean.

Its organisers run dinner services seven nights a week, and say it's there where trust is built. But a hot meal is just the start.

Love Soup founder Gina Peiffer says accommodation is the next step, and the support doesn't stop once people are housed.

"We will furnish, we will clothe," she says. "We will provide those basic needs. If they need help with budgeting, mental health -- whatever it is -- we'll step in."

The group is an extension of Love Soup Tokoroa and Ms Peiffer and her husband have been running the charity out of their rental property for the past three years. They say they don't receive any funding and rely on donations from the community.

Their model has been so successful a Ghana-based charity called Helping Hands wants to replicate it.

"They've requested to come here for three months to study our model and how it works," says Ms Peiffer.

Mother Moeroa says Love Soup housed her and her two kids in December last year. They moved to Rotorua from the South Island and were forced to stay in backpacker accommodation.

"I'd go two days in one room, and then move to another room and then another room," she says.

Ms Moeroa says she first heard of Love Soup Rotorua on Facebook, and after offering to volunteer finally plucked up the courage to ask for help herself.

"Just that support -- it's knowing the door is never closed. I suppose that's the difference between agencies. It's only 8-5, whereas Love Soup is very, very different."

"We don't ever leave you; you choose to leave us," says Ms Peiffer.

Love Soup says it's in it for the long haul and hopes other charities will follow suit.

Newshub.