Today I went up to the Auckland City Mission to find out how to get access to a homeless person. I initially met with Charlotte who tells me to come back at 1pm to meet with Wilf.
I went back up at 1.30pm and waited for Wilf, during my wait I met an interesting fellow, let’s call him Cliff. Shirt off, complaining about the heat, blood-shot eyes, loud voice, telling the women they look beautiful. He seemed a bit on edge, and a bit of a show off. He came and sat next to me. “What’s your occupation” he said. “I’m an artist”, I said back. He went on to say that he has met a few artists and that his sister is an artist. Then he told me that his sister was dating a guy that got “thrown away” for 7 years for dealing a pound of meth to an undercover cop. She isn’t seeing him anymore, but is now a “courier” or a go-between for another dealer and goes up to his place every day with at least 4 ounces to drop off. All I could do was nod and smile, I was actually quite shocked at how open this guy was with me, I hadn’t even said a whole sentence to him yet.
Enter Wilf…Cliff tells me to not say anything about what I just heard as I walked out the back.
Wilf, interesting name I thought – when Charlotte told me to come back to see Wilf, I actually thought she had said Wolf…I had this image in my head of a grey haired striking looking man. Wilf has a very clam nature about him, he has long grey hair and a grey, neatly clipped, short beard – and very striking looking…my premonition was almost right.
We sat out the back of the city mission and chatted about my project and how he could help me. It was a short but very interesting conversation. I found out that some of the homeless people take part in projects around the city. One, which Wilf looks after, is a gardening project up at Ngati Whatua. They grown their own veges and plants and sometimes use the veges for dinner at the city mission. They also have a fishing club a drama club and are looking at putting on an art exhibition.
I will wait with absolute patience if the men he talked about will be interested in participating.
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