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National | News

Kiwis banding together to give one koro hope

Te Ao returned to visit Tūākau pensioner Peter Semmens (Tainui) today, who is only one of many elderly in the Waikato region facing financial hardship with a rent increase which commenced on Monday, 1 July 2019.

Since running our story on Thursday, Semmens has been overwhelmed with the interest and support for his plight, saying that the struggle is shared by many.

He says, “Overwhelmed, embarrassed because that's not what I was basing it about, but I would like to give my sincere thank you to everybody who has done it and can see what we pensioners are going through.”

The rent increase applied to the Housing For Elderly properties in Tūākau, Ngāruawāhia and Huntly imposed by the Waikato District Council.

Kelly Anne Spriggs, a mother of seven, was moved so much by the Te Ao story on Thursday that she donated a whole week's rent for Mr Semmens.

“After seeing that story, and especially at the end where he was living, and it resonated with me where my grandmother lived with me in Kaikohe, and I knew that she was struggling. When I watched it I thought this kaumatua can't live on $40 a week," says Spriggs.

However, local government explains that they are faced with rising annual costs, which includes maintenance for council residents. These are costs where ratepayers do not foot the bill.

Waikato District Council mayor Allan Senson says, “It's a little bit like your own home, there's overheads that we have to cover for that, plus administering them, and, in actual fact, we're losing money which means that that loss is fed onto other ratepayers.”

Semmens disagrees, “Very disappointed with his response for that. The simple reason is I have been a ratepayer most of my life. I feel it's the [poor] getting the kick in the gut for the [rich] and that's how I feel with that situation.”

Spriggs says the Waikato District Council has failed to support kaumātua, “Sometimes I see the system fail our people, but we need to ensure that we don't fail our people.”

The rent for Housing For Elderly properties has increased by $26.00 a week, with that increase expected to continue rising per annum.

For now though, Koro Semmens is grateful for the community support and hopes others out there in similar situations will be able to keep warm this winter.