Trevor Easton Two financially-strapped gay community support organisations are now actively exploring a proposal to operate from shared premises to reduce costs. Outline and Rainbow Youth, both Auckland-based but providing services on a national basis, are each struggling to pay their rent and other expenses, with Outline on a tenuous month by month agreement on its Pompalier Terrace premises in Ponsonby. Recently-appointed Outline manager Trevor Easton says the boards of Outline and Rainbow Youth have met and support the proposal being explored. "If we go ahead it will have to be in premises that meet both our needs," Easton says. Under a previous manager Outline upgraded and extended the Pompalier premises with the intention of attracting other gay community organisations to come into the space and share the costs. However, no other groups have done so. "They haven’t been able or interested in sharing the accommodation and it is not financially viable for us to pay market rent for this size of accommodation", says Easton. "I’m not sure how we went about approaching the community to share this space, most groups are also struggling financially." By agreeing to a month by month rental instead of a long-term lease Outline managed to reduce the cost of its premises to "a third of the value of the commercial rent for this size of space." Rainbow Youth's new General Manager, Duncan Matthews, revealed through GayNZ.com Daily News two weeks ago that he had approached Outline with a combined 'Pride Centre' proposal. Although Outline is under some pressure to call it quits at Pompalier Terrace by the end of this month, Easton says negotiations with the landlord should see their tenancy extended for another month, thus buying time for the combined premises concept to be fully evaluated and groundwork on a possible new location to be done. He says a real estate agent is already doing preliminary work on identifying possible space, either for Outline for the short or longer term larger premises to house both organisations.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 20th September 2013 - 2:00pm