Members of Curate church will be opening their homes to needy families, who they expect will become displaced during the annual AIMS Games Tournament.

The church-led response has been organised by individual members of Curate church.

Angela Wallace, a member of the church, says she felt a need to do something about the issue.

'During AIMS Games all of the accommodation in Tauranga becomes booked out,” she says. 'This is awesome but what's not awesome is that families who are staying in motels under emergency housing and special needs grants, supported by Ministry of Social Development, have to leave because there are prior bookings in place.

'There are a large number of families who become displaced during this time, and they are pretty desperate for places to stay.”

She says this year isn't the first time it's been an issue.

'When this happened last year, a group of us from Curate thought ‘this is not okay, we have to do something for these people.'

'We put a call out on social media asking if anyone could host some of the displaced families during AIMS Games and a lot of people stepped up and offered their homes.

'We hosted a number of families and it all went well, but this year it's looking like there will be so many more families in need.

'We are working alongside Te Tuinga Whanau and their guess is that about 100 people will become displaced during this time, so we are needing to mobilise quite a big response.

'If we don't help, the alternative is we are going to see families sleeping in their cars with their kids and

Alongside accommodation, the church will also be providing food to Street Kai, a community group who runs a weekly Milo Night at the bus stop on Willow Street.

'They're expecting a big response as well.”

In a statement supplied to SunLive about the displacement issue, Ministry of Social Development Bay of Plenty regional commissioner Mike Bryant, has denied it is one.

'We see our emergency housing clients every seven days – these are the people and families temporarily staying in motels, hostel and campgrounds that we're helping to find longer-term housing solutions.

'We work with them well ahead of the AIMS Games to ensure they have somewhere to stay during the tournament.

'No client has told us they have been asked to move from their emergency accommodation for the AIMS Games to date – there may be people staying in motels that haven't told us, and we want to hear from them if they have concerns.

'We've talked with all the people we're currently supporting with emergency accommodation and have confirmed they have somewhere warm, safe and dry to stay. If people are asked to move, we want to know so we can help them.”

Mike says planning is done every year to ensure no families are displaced during this time.

'We're confident we're meeting the current need. The temporary nature of emergency accommodation does mean it's is an ever-changing environment, and with 10 days to go until the AIMS Games, things may be different next week or the following, but we are prepared for any potential changes.

'We have rooms booked ahead, and if needed, can help people move around the district into other emergency accommodation.

'We want to acknowledge the valuable support the community and providers are giving to the vulnerable people in our area and we remain committed to working with them,” he says. 'We want to encourage any families or individuals, as well as community groups and housing providers to talk with our staff urgently if they need help or know of anyone who needs help.”

Tourism Bay of Plenty head of marketing, Kath Low says the 2018 Aims Games will host 10,851 participants.

'Many will travel from out of town and all teams will include support staff. The numbers are significant and the impact to the economy of hosting this number of people within the region cannot and should not be underestimated.

'Vicki Semple and her team do a phenomenal job in pulling together an event of this magnitude and the timing of the event, being the middle of winter, is fantastic as it keeps accommodation providers and support services busy at a time which is traditionally and typically quiet.”