Strong Voices

A cool morning didn’t spoil the warmth of the welcome for Accessible Properties’ tenants to a new pop-up park in Tauranga.

“It was brilliant to see the local community come out over Matariki and have some fun at 899 Cameron, our new pop-up-park,” says Vicki McLaren, General Manager of Accessible Properties Tauranga.

The park is on a vacant section owned by the IHC community housing provider. “It will be developed into housing in the next year or so, but while it’s empty we wanted to turn it into a real asset for the area.

“We were privileged to have local kaumātua Puhirake Ihaka lead a blessing for the park in the early hours of what was a pretty cool June morning, and we also had a fantastic hangi for our tenants.”

The forecast was atrocious for the Matariki Whānau Day the following weekend, but the rain stayed away and lots of people turned out for kai and family activities.

“Accessible Properties’ role goes well beyond putting a roof over people’s heads. We are really invested in the communities we are part of,” Vicki says. “And that includes working with other organisations. We’ve had great support from Tauranga City Council, the Department of Internal Affairs, EmployNZ, Sport Bay of Plenty and Good Neighbour to help us make the park happen.

“It’s been a team effort and it’ll be great to see people enjoying our new green space.”

Caption 1: Ereti Williams, Tenancy Operations Manager with Accessible Properties in Tauranga, celebrates with tenants.

Caption 2: The rain stayed away, and tenants enjoyed kai and family activities for the Matariki Whānau day.

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