Wraparound support from the community has helped a homeless Whakatāne couple obtain the passports they need to secure a roof over their heads.

Janice Taylor and Upoko Marters, who have been living rough for two years, leave for the Cook Islands next week where Mr Maters has a family home.

It has been a difficult journey for the couple who initially struggled to apply for passports because they were homeless and did not have anyone they could call on to verify their identity. Their first witness was denied and they had to find another.

Since telling their story in the Beacon in February, the couple have succeeded in obtaining passports, albeit with a few hiccups along the way.

Pacific Growth Services in Tauranga has paid for the passports and the Ōhope woman who has been helping them for the past two years, has paid for their flights.

The benefactor, who didn’t want to be named, said it was the least she could do to help them get a roof over their heads before the first frost. She has also been letting them use the shower at her office and will be taking them to Auckland Airport.

Pacific Growth Services founder Aifai Esera said paying for the couple’s passports fit with the organisation’s values of helping Pacific communities in the Bay of Plenty.

“It was important to me that Upoko reconnects with the source of his history, culture and land. Paying for the passports was a small piece of something we could do to help in their journey – why wouldn’t we do that?”

The couple fly to the Cook Islands on May 13. When they land, they will have family meeting them at the airport, who are giving them a place to stay the night before they go to the home that Mr Marters owns a seven-bedroom house on Atiu, which his parents left for him to look after, but he has been unable to go back for years.

They appreciate all the help they have been given and are excited to soon have a roof over their heads – and be somewhere warmer when winter hits.

Ms Taylor was born in Auckland and has been moving around the North Island since she was 16.

She arrived in Whakatāne in 2022 where she was offered a transitional place to stay, but that was only for a short time, and she was soon back sleeping on the streets.

Mr Marters was born in the Cook Islands but moved to New Zealand when he was six and has lived in Whakatāne for the past 40 years.

Ms Taylor said she was not going to miss their camp near the river when she went overseas.

“We’re going to a better area.”