There are further calls tonight for Auckland boarding house WISE Guys to be shut down, as the mother of a man who lived there for almost a year says her brain injured son was made to sleep in a urine soaked bed for weeks.
This is after allegations of illegal drug use, alcohol abuse and violence at the facility were reported exclusively by 1 NEWS yesterday.
Colleen's son Glen moved into WISE Guys last December. She said he bought drugs from fellow residents on a daily basis and he was terrified after witnessing a stabbing there.
"Oh, it was horrible. I used to come home from there crying," Colleen told 1 NEWS. "It's not safe down there."
Glen was injured in a car crash twenty years ago, he's now hooked on marijuana as he says it makes him feel better.
"I did have him living with me but I couldn't cope anymore," Colleen says.
She says the 10-months he spent at the Kingseat boarding house was harrowing, mired in drugs and violence, where Glen was witness to a brutal drug-fueled stabbing.
"He was terrified, he used to lock himself in his room," Collen says.
Last night 1 NEWS put allegations of stabbings, drug and alcohol abuse to WISE Guys owner Brent Milesi. "I have no drugs, no alcohol, no violence. You break those rules, I'll throw you out immediately," Mr Milesi said.
After the 1 NEWS exclusive, Mr Milesi rang and conceded there were two stabbings this year. For good measure he added he'd just thrown someone out for a sexual offence, for which the police were called.
But he's adamant it's drug free. Colleen hoped her son’s drug problems would be addressed at WISE Guys - a supposed caring, therapeutic environment. Instead they were exacerbated.
"There was drugs there everyday. Everyday you could buy a drug. He was smoking everyday," Colleen says. Glen was smoking so much he got into debt with the resident dealers.
Colleen arranged with ACC for contractors to go into WISE Guys to help her son with food and care.
"They wouldn't let their workers come in and work at a place like that," Colleen says. "The kitchen was filthy. The place was riddled with cockroaches."
But perhaps the ultimate humiliation for Glen was sleeping on a urine soaked mattress.
"I said to him 'what's wrong?' He said 'my bed's wet and he said I've been laying in it for weeks," Colleen says.
The Salvation Army says Wiseguys, south of Auckland, is unsafe amid allegations of violence and drug use.
"He said 'I've asked for another mattress and they said 'no, you just have to keep sleeping on that'."
Brent Milesi told 1 NEWS today that's impossible, arguing he has countless spare mattresses. Last night, the Salvation Army said WISE Guys was unsafe and should be shut down.
"I want to see people in WISE Guys treated properly and respectfully and fairly, like us. They are the same human beings like us," Salvation Army’s Ted Kim says.
Glen's mum Colleen agrees. "I think WISE Guys needs to be closed down," she says.
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