Making the most of a second chance

BY KELLY BURNS

For 72 street people, a street banking programme is a lifeline, facing up to debt and sometimes even helping them turn their back on booze and drugs.

They are no angels. Many are battling addictions, some are homeless and others are straight out of jail.

These street people are usually laden with debt from court fines or making bad decisions with hire purchase and cash loans with crippling interest rates.

Most cannot get a bank account. Some have been trespassed from banks and Work and Income for being drunk or abusive.

But social worker Dougal Speir says they deserve a second chance.

The Downtown Community Ministry's Street People Project is their chance to face up to debts and quit bad habits.

The project began in 1995 when street people told of the frustration of not being able to get a bank account and get access to benefits. One of their number became its first coordinator. Fourteen years later, the little-known banking service has helped more than 1000 people.

Today it has 72 people on its books and handles more than $500,000 a year. Of its clients, 98 per cent are beneficiaries; most are men.

William Matangi is one of them.

The 45-year-old invalid beneficiary lives in the Taranaki St shelter in Wellington. The heavily tattooed former drug addict says he has been on the streets or in jail since he was 11.

He joined the project two years ago to get an advocate and find help budgeting his benefit of $176 a week.

Now his benefit is paid directly to the community project's bank account. From that, $57 goes for accommodation at the shelter about $7 a night and $30 goes for court fines in automatic payments.

He owes about $16,000 in traffic-related fines. "I've been doing that [paying fines] for about nine years. Man, I really need to do something about that," he said.

It leaves $89, which he is given in a cash cheque for food, savings and other costs, including visiting his daughters, aged eight and 14, at the weekends.

"It's taken me from spending all my money on drugs every week to spending none," Mr Matangi said.

Mr Speir said most banks required several forms of identification and often photo ID, which "our guys don't have".

Having no fixed abode and criminal convictions also hinders getting a bank account. Enter the street banking programme.

It acts as an agent, giving access to its bank account and budgeting advice.

Its aim is for clients to eventually get, and be able to operate, their own bank accounts. Staff also advocate for street people, making arrangements to pay debts or get benefit entitlements and set up automatic payments.

"We can begin to pay their bills first their rent, then the power and debts," Mr Speir said.

Client debts are generally between $5000 and $10,000, often with interest rates of up to 40 per cent.

Many clients have been hiding from debt, while others are unprepared for it.

"Sometimes they are incarcerated and it happens on a day they are not expecting it, and they lose their benefit as soon as they go to prison, leaving rent, power and bills."

There are cases of street people with debts of more than $30,000. One woman is left with $33 a week after bills and court-imposed fines are paid, Mr Speir said.

But most, including Mr Matangi, want to get rid of debts.

"They are really just like you and me, just because they are on a benefit doesn't mean they don't have aspirations.

"But with their criminal history and addictions, getting ahead is a real struggle."

The project is not there to support their habits and has strict rules. There are no advance payments and it never supports overdrafts or credit cards. "We are really strict about this we're not a soft touch," treasurer Pat Booth said.

The banking service opens four days a week, does not handle cash and links in with the community ministry housing and training programmes, and its food bank.

Though a thankless job, in which social workers sometimes have to deal with abuse from drunk or drugged people, Mr Speir said it was rewarding. "I do believe they deserve a second chance. And this organisation never gives up. It tries relentlessly to help people."

He believed if the programme did not exist, crime would rise as desperate people found new ways of getting money.

It could take years for people to turn their lives around, but there were success stories.

A realist at heart, Mr Speir said he was always hopeful. Three of his clients donate $5 to charity each week and others have started saving, including Mr Matangi, who said the banking project, and being introduced by the community ministry to the homeless street football team, helped him get sober.

"I love it. It's just brought everything I was back to life."

For the first time in decades he has energy, feels part of a team, and has $350 saved. "I'm saving for the end of year to get something special for my girls."

- © Fairfax NZ News