In their meeting on Thursday, councillors decided to give $40,099 to the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective to fund the wages of a Christchurch-based street outreach co-ordinator. "I know first-hand how much of a difference this outreach co-ordinator has made." The city council began collaborating with the collective in 2017 when it awarded a grant of $40,000 to initiate the street outreach co-ordinator. Street closures and road works after the February 22, 2011, earthquake pushed some street sex workers away from Manchester St. The city council also saw the co-ordinator's work as crucial to ensuring the safety of sex workers, especially considering five street-based sex workers have been murdered in the city over the years, including one over the previous summer holidays.

Source: Otago Daily Times October 22, 2020 01:47 UTC