Source: Radio New Zealand
Auckland streeties say they already get moved on by security guards, council workers and police. Nick Monro
Stay clean, don’t be seen – that’s the motto of many Auckland streeties who say they already get moved on by security guards, council workers and police.
The government is giving police new powers to move on rough sleepers or people displaying disorderly behaviour in town and city centres.
Shopkeepers and business leaders wanted it and social agencies condemned it, but homeless people warned it raised the question of where they were supposed to go.
Kevin lived rough for about a decade before moving into an apartment provided by a social agency in Auckland four years ago.
He described his experience like this: “Hustle – having unidentified struggle to live equally.”
Kevin still knew many people who slept rough.
“Not all the ones want to take the cup and ask for money, some of them are just walking around town biding time looking for refuge or sanctuary of some kind, or looking for help.”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon earlier said police were capable of dealing with the issues and the orders would give police another tool to address anti-social behaviour.
But the Police Association said it would be a drain on resources.
Breach an order, and it risked a fine or three month jail term.
Rough sleepers are asking where they are meant to go. Nick Monro
Kevin said it should be the job of an agency already supporting rough sleepers.
“Why not another organisation because that uniform has a presentation, using that uniform and the police may not want to be doing this.”
A woman who had been homeless for just over a year in Auckland, whom RNZ agreed to keep anonymous, said there were fewer areas in the central city to hang out in.
She went by the motto – stay clean, don’t be seen.
“They have absolutely done everything in their power to move us away from the public areas, they’ve taken all the chairs, the tables, shut down the toilets so that we’re concentrated in certain areas.”
She said it was not easy getting off the streets because there was a lack of suitable housing – she preferred street life to boarding houses.
“We all recognise that we all have a lot of the same issues and we can’t reintegrate back into society because we didn’t fit there in the first place,” she said.
“So now pushing us into certain areas, not being able to be here at a certain time, you can’t lie down in Auckland city central business district at all.”
Moving someplace else would not be easy.
“The whole question in the beginning, where are we meant to go to? Where’s the designated area?
“They can try and move us on but there’s other ways around it, because we’re still able to be here, we still have nowhere else to go.”
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith’s office said police were expected to connect people given move-on orders with the support they may need.
Newmarket Business Association chief executive Mark Knoff-Thomas. supplied
Newmarket Business Association supported the introduction of move-on orders, as long as the problem was not shifted from street to street.
Its chief executive Mark Knoff-Thomas said businesses did need help dealing with persistent anti-social behaviour outside their premises.
Kevin has a roof over his head now, but worried about those who did not, who could be asked to move on.
“They can’t give you a home so you’re going to take your trolley and move on, go somewhere else and move on, I think this is going to happen.”
The changes proposed by government would have to go through a legislative process before coming into effect.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
