Kia ora Steve, thanks for being with us. How long have you been a tenant with City Housing and now Te Toi Mahana?

I’ve been at Central Park since 1994 - except for a break when it was done up and I moved into Pukehinau for a couple of years or so.

So about 30 years! You must be one of our longest tenants?
Ha, I think there are a few others.

What was the difference like after they did up Central Park?
It was quite different. My lounge and kitchen have become one space that was a big difference, and the other big difference was when I added up my power costs, my electricity costs for the year was about 70% of what it used to be - because of the installation. The acoustics in the old days were also really bad, much better now.

How did you get involved with the Amigos Support Group?
I knew the founder of Amigos a little bit and she asked me to come along to one of their coffee groups. And gradually I made it a habit and became the administrator of the group.

What’s the kaupapa of the Amigos Support Group?
The Amigos is a place for people who have experienced mental distress to meet and network and get social support. There's many, many activities that we have- coffee groups, writing groups, arts groups, mindfulness, meditation exercise group, and a fishing group.

That’s a lot. How many people are involved?
From March 2023 to March this year, I did some stats and there were 245 individuals involved in some way and over 2,000 engagements all up.

What does your role as the administrator involve?
Recording the attendance, so I've got all stats and. Sometimes writing up the minutes from the last meeting. Keeping the filing system in order, which is in the cloud, and many other admin tasks.

How would people get involved?
People can just roll up to one of our groups or activities. You don’t need to register or be referred of anything. You can find out when and where our activities are on by going to our website www.amigospeersupport.nz

What else keeps you busy?
I try and exercise a bit. I used to be a smoker. I quit smoking 11 years ago, but have permanent damage to my lungs, so it makes breathing quite hard. I don’t do tramping any more but I’m trying to do gentle exercise.

And I heard you are a bit of a guitar player?
I've picked it up and dropped over the years, many times. This time around I thought about time I started really learning it, so I play at an open mic in Newtown on some Sunday nights, and at Evaro open mic every 2nd Tuesday night.

What songs do you play?
At the moment I'm learning Stevie Wonder's ‘Golden Lady’, and Chicago’s ‘Saturday in the Park’

Thanks for you the chat Steve. Do you know of someone that would be up for a chat? Let me know on Seb.Bishop@tetoimahana.org.nz or 021 243 5629