The Southshore Residents Association has announced the closing of its earthquake recovery Community House.

The Community House opened in September 2012. It was a drop-in centre and a venue for meetings in the suburb. Southshore had lost access to other community facilities due to earthquake action.

However, over the past year other facilities have reopened and more and more residents have either been forced to move out of their red-zoned houses or, if able to say, have resolved their issues with insurance companies and EQC and are now on the path to repair or rebuild.

Chair of the Southshore Residents Association, Bill Simpson, acknowledged the support of key funders especially the Tindall Foundation and the Todd Foundation.

“The Tindall Foundation and the Todd Foundation in particular were very quick to recognise our needs and without their continued contribution we would not have been able to get the community house operating”.

Dave Richards, Projects and Strategy Manager at The Tindall Foundation said that fact the Community House was closing shows how the residents of Southshore are moving on after the quakes.

“Southshore Community House has contributed so much to local residents over the last two and a half years and we thank the Residents Association for all it has done to help its community. The fact that the Community House is no longer needed is a positive thing because it means other services are up and running and residents are moving on and successfully re-building their lives following the devastating earthquakes,” said Dave Richards.

Other supporters include the Burwood – Pegasus Community Board, IAG, Spark and the Christchurch East Parish of the Anglican Church.

A community barbecue was held at lunchtime on Sunday 15th February to mark the closing of the house.

“Southshore people have been amazing in showing their support for the house. They have freely donated furniture, appliances and all the other items we needed to keep the house open. And we have never lacked for volunteers to host the drop-in sessions” said Bill Simpson.

Since opening there have been more than 17,000 “visits” to the house. On an average day more than 22 people will drop-in. Activities have included drop-in sessions, meetings, mahjong, Mums and Bubs coffee group, fruit and vegetable distribution, music sessions, trivia quiz nights, auctions and barbecues.

The Residents Association will continue to manage its own earthquake recovery programme and will make more use of South Brighton’s Transitional Community Centre as a venue for meetings. People can get regular notices of events by signing up to the weekly e-mail (send a request to mail@ssra.org.nz ) or by visiting SSRA’s facebook page.