Manurewa Marae is being overwhelmed with volunteers as it prepares to open its doors for South Auckland's homeless.

The Marae has decided to follow Te Puea Marae to help families struggling to find homes.

Marae board member Rangi McLean said they will be open to register families for four days a week.

He said they have over 200 volunteers already signed up, and more are coming to help out.

"We won't be bringing all the volunteers in at once because they will get in each others road. So we will be staggering them throughout the whole 12 weeks."

McLean said they can accommodate over 100 people, mostly families.

However, he said there will be places for others.

"We've got spaces for about 10 male individuals. We identified through our research that there was a need for males to be taken in that are out there sleeping rough."