Cedar Tree Lodge – We need your Help. Halfway House – Homeless Shelter for the needy.

Cedar Tree Lodge – We need your Help.

Halfway House – Homeless Shelter for those in need in and around our community.

What does Cedar Tree Lodge mean in our Southland / Otago community !

Over the past 3 years, Cedar Tree Lodge, Balclutha has accommodated nearly 320 persons who experience some level of financial hardship.

Homelessness, is the condition of people without a permanent home. People who are homeless are most often unable to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and secure housing. There are many reasons why people end up living in these facilities. Clients age from 16 up.

There are a wide range of personal reasons to why people live at the lodge. Most of the reasons are financial in nature due to having bad credit, not able to have power connected, or have a history of not paying rent, therefore not able to get into rental properties.

Low income earners that have income less than $400pw simply cannot rent or live alone, this has become more common at the lodge with the basic room cost around $100pw which is affordable. Some People simply cannot live with other people or share living costs.

Some other reasons may extend from relationship issues to where one person had to leave the family home on a 5 day safety order or the family income earner has to reside in another town for employment therefore he or she has to support two accommodations. This can make it extremely hard financially and this is what we see a lot of at the lodge.

A small portion of the homeless population that we see at the lodge are generally people in transit that have no fixed place of residence.

Cedar Tree Lodge Offers 24/7 Supportive living to the ones that need it.

People arrive at Cedar Tree Lodge from all over New Zealand often with nothing to their name; no money no job, no support, just hoping to get employment through our support network.

This facility offers support and helps those people in need, we have social services on site.

We have no funding to run this facility other than what we generate through accommodation fees and is completely run by volunteers.

These figures come from our records and I feel that the community in Balclutha need to know how much this facility is needed in our district.

This facility needs funding of some degree in the coming year for projects to create a better living environment.

Funding is required for building maintenance and a

total roof replacement within the next 2 years. The cost for a total roof replacement is $600.000. The quote to do 10% of the roof was $115.000.

Electrical rewiring and meter board upgrades is an estimated $200,000.

The Lodge requires heating upgrades before this coming winter with the planned installation of 5 heat pumps at a cost of around $25,000.

In addition to the above costs, building compliance and rates are approximately $10,000 pa.

Any additional funds will be placed against the mortgage to reduce weekly costs.

Current financial situation:

Income for the Lodge is approx. $130,000 per year.

Running costs to keep providing the service to the community is approx. $2,500 per week.

All fundraising is for maintenance and repairs to the lodge.

Help us restore the old Balclutha Hospital.

I have huge passion for this service and the people we care for.

We change peoples lives. The community truly benefits from this facility and many people depend on it.

Thank you for your consideration.

Jamie Tremaine

Site Manager/Owner Cedar Tree Lodge.