01/10/2026
As the weather warms, communities around the country will start noticing the presence in towns and cities of people 'living on the street'. While this can sometimes be accompanied by antisocial behaviour, a man who knows the ‘homeless’ community in Nelson very well, Phil Chapman, sees them for what they are: traumatised people.
Sometimes life doesn’t go according to plan and lives unravel. The lawyer, accountant, teacher, may unexpectedly find himself spiralling when family relationships fail, jobs end, illness or accident happens, addictions take over, and the prospect of being homeless becomes a reality.
This morning, Phil Chapman, the director of the Male Room, asked us all to look beyond the state of being homeless and instead humanise those in the community and see them as people living with trauma.
The Male Room offers a listening ear and practical advice, supported by counselling services for the homeless community, predominantly men, but increasingly including women. It has links in with other support agencies and the police. It is also home to the Whare Haumaru (safe place), which Nelson city Rotary clubs led by Nelson Rotary worked on together with the support of Nelson City Council in 2022.
Phil said he doubted the Male Room would exist today without the whare, which sees between 30 and 60 people, mostly men in either temporary social housing or living on the street, visit each day. Often also battling drug and alcohol addictions, It's a safe place for them to come for breakfast, to shower, do laundry, use the kitchen, receive support, or just sit and have a quiet chat or laugh over a coffee with peers.
"Being defined by homelessness is dehumaninsing," Phil told us, while wondering about the changes in our community over the last decades that have led to the huge increase in people finding themselves homeless. "We are increasingly isolated and have lost the ties that bind us," he said.
While not excusing the bad behaviour sometimes exhibited by some members of the homeless community, Phil said there is no easy fix to the problem of homelessness and nor is there likely to ever be one. What would help, he suggested, is a concerted nationwide wraparound service of agencies and community support, much like is given to migrants on arrival in New Zealand.
But, with no sign of that on the horizon, Phil said a little bit of understanding by the public about why people live on the street (or in a park, or in bushes, or under a bridge, or in a derelict building...) and learning individual stories, can go a long way towards humanising a very dehumanising situation.
Phil is pictured wearing his Paul Harris Fellow medal (awarded by Nelson Rotary) alongside a photo taken by the Nelson Mail at the time the Whare Haumaru building was lowered into place behind the Male Room.
Nelson Rotary Club
Rutherford Rotary
Rotary District 9999
