An emergency housing centre in Blenheim has had the words 'scum' and 'scabs' stained into the front lawn with weedkiller outside.
Blenheim Emergency Transitional Housing Service manager Janette Walker. Photo: RNZ / Craig McCulloch
Blenheim Emergency Transitional Housing Service manager Janette Walker told Morning Report she along with the people at the facility were appalled at the incident.
"I thought it was extremely vicious and I felt quite saddened about it because it's very visible from the road so anybody coming in to Blenheim from the airport, tourists or whatever, will see a lawn with 'scum' on it," Ms Walker said.
"The parents are shocked because they're doing the best job possible to provide a roof over their kids' heads and get on with their lives. It's through no fault of their own that they're in that situation.
She suspected a local would have had to sprayed the words on the lawn because there was no sign outside the site that indicated it was the emergency housing centre.
"The 16-odd families we've got in there, that's their home in the meantime and they take a lot of pride in their environment.
"We've got a property manager that lives on-site and he was really horrified because he kept the place really tidy."
The facility housed all sorts of people from families with children, to single people and next week an 84-year-old was also moving in, she said.
"We've got a lot fo families, we've got a lot of very young children under five, most of them are.
"I just think what sort of a person, what sort of an adult person thinks like that?
"That they can just permenantly stain a grass area, call families and vulnerable children 'scum' and 'scab' and 'scumbags' and wake up in the morning and think they're a good person to be honest."
She believed the incident could be a result of opposition to the development, which delayed the opening and added another year to the process.
"The facilities should have been opened last year if everything had gone through smooth sailing but it didn't," Ms Walker said.
"There was absolute push-back, people didn't want it there.
Fear and ignorance about the homelessness crisis was what led that opposition, she said.
"The vast majority of people don't understand the issues that surround homelessness and just see the TV footage of beggars on the streets in Wellington and Auckland and think thats homelessness, but it's not ... it goes from very young families to single people, right through to [elderly].
The incident has been referred to the police.
