Source: Radio New Zealand
Nick Monro
There is growing alarm among youth advocates and law experts that at-risk children could be asked to leave a public area if they’re caught begging or sleeping.
The government plans to give police the power to move on rough sleepers, beggars, or people displaying disorderly behaviour anywhere in public.
It would apply to anyone aged over 14 years old and be enforceable through fines and a maximum three month prison term.
The proposal comes after widespread concern about growing anti-social behaviour in Auckland and other city centres.
Aaron Hendry has worked with at-risk young people for a decade and is worried by the numbers of homeless rangatahi.
He heads Kickback, a youth development organisation responding to homelessness in Auckland.
“Currently we’re monitoring roughly 200 or so tamariki and rangatahi across the region, in various levels, some fairly intensively, others light touch just guiding and navigating. Others that we’ve been able to rehouse we stay in the background to make sure they don’t slip through the cracks.”
Aaron Hendry. RNZ/ Eva Corlett
Kickback can help children on the street to find shelter, sometimes in a matter of hours, but that has taken years of work building relationships with key services and landlords.
“We meet new young people every single week though, there’s always someone new, there’s something new going on and the system right now is under huge amounts of pressure,” Hendry said.
“We’re seeing young people coming both through the mental health system where they’re discharged from the hospital mental health unit and they’ve got nowhere to go,” he said.
“We’re seeing children that are coming through the care system, going through the justice system, kids that have just ended up in a lodge or a hostel by themselves and they’ve got nowhere to go.”
He said children and young people who find themselves homeless need support, and organisations like Kickback need more funding.
Hendry said the move-on orders were not the answer and police already have the power to respond to criminal behaviour among young people.
“The fact that children have been named within them is concerning to us,” he said.
“We know that when a child or a young person is on the street, when they’re experiencing homelessness, there’s some real significant risk to their lives and what we need to be doing is ensuring that we’ve got the right wrap-around support in place.”
Many shop keepers and business leaders support the government’s move-on orders to address ongoing anti-social behaviour.
But Youth Law Aotearoa general manager Darryn Aitchison said they should not apply to teenagers.
“We used to go downtown and walk around the streets on a Friday night, right, that’s what young people do, that’s normal young person behaviour,” he said.
“This law actually creates a situation where being a normal 14 year old could bring you into contact with the police.”
He said public places are central to the rights of freedom of movement, association, and expression – and children have a right to housing.
“We’re actually seeing a bit of a creep around civil rights and people’s ability to just be in their communities, be free, be normal, do the normal things that young people do and that’s concerning,” Aitchison said.
“I think all New Zealanders should be concerned about that.”
The Human Rights Commission said the planned move-on orders appeared to contravene the Bill of Rights Act.
Chief Human Rights Commissioner Dr Stephen Rainbow said he had “major concerns” about children as young as 14 being subject to move-on orders.
Dr Stephen Rainbow. Supplied/ Human Rights Commission
“Our role should be in protecting and supporting children to live a life of dignity. The best interest of the child is the paramount consideration for our human rights responsibilities.”
He said everyone deserved a life of dignity and a safe place to call home and the commission was concerned homeless people would be displaced and forced into areas away from food, health services and support networks.
“Public spaces are essential for democratic participation, social and cultural life, community belonging and access to services. They are central to our rights to freedom of movement, association, and expression,” Rainbow said.
“Restrictions on Bill of Rights Act rights must be necessary, proportionate, and justified. Though we do not have the specific wording of the amendment, the proposal does not appear to meet these criteria.”
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith’s office earlier said police are expected to connect people given move-on orders with the support they may need.
Rainbow said there were too many people with serious mental health and addiction needs in the community without adequate support.
“This is not humane for those living on the street, and can be unsafe for workers, public transport users, families and businesses who experience anti-social behaviour or disruption.”
He said the move-on orders proposal does nothing to deal with any of the key drivers of homelessness including the rising cost of living, addiction and mental health issues.
“We all have times in our lives where we need care to get by, and many of us don’t have the savings or personal support systems to bounce back after a traumatic event like a job loss, health crisis, or fleeing violence,” Rainbow said.
“What people experiencing homelessness need most is a home and access to social services, which will lead to greater safety for all. We call on the government to prioritise safety, dignity, and care over short-term measures that seek to make problems and people invisible.
Criminal Bar Association of New Zealand president Annabel Cresswell said the proposed move-on orders risk eroding fundamental rights without addressing the cause of the issues faced by those who are vulnerable in our communities.
“We stand ready to challenge any rights breaches through the courts, where our members have long acted to stand for equality and justice for our most vulnerable.”
Cresswell said everyone in New Zealand deserves a secure home and to live with dignity.
“But we are all aware of the worsening problem of homelessness in our communities, especially clear to our members working in our courts, where unhoused persons often end up,” she said.
“Forcing our unhoused community to leave their most familiar spaces, via harsh policing and criminalisation, is not only inhumane but will cause many to become unsafe.”
Cresswell said it was shocking because emergency housing and state housing is at its least accessible.
“We remind policy-makers that policing and criminal justice processes against unhoused people is actually far more expensive in the long-run than investing in homes, health access, support and care.”
Pam Elgar is executive chair of social services agency Lifewise. She said there is widespread recognition that anti-social behaviour needs to be addressed.
But she said the underlying causes were crucial to address and opposed the move-on orders.
“When homeless rangatahi are visible in public spaces it highlights unmet needs, not necessarily bad behaviour and the conflation of bad behaviour with homelessness is a risk,” Elgar said.
“These young people fall through the cracks, they’re ineligible for a benefit and do not meet criteria for housing support. There’s a real concern that in the absence of appropriate alternative, police may refer them to Oranga Tamariki, which of course is widely regarded as a measure of last resort.”
Hendry said he feels deeply frustrated at the move-on orders when there are rangatahi who desperately need help and homes.
“If we think about it for a second, a child ending up sleeping rough in the city centre. What is going on in that kid’s life, what is going on in his whānau’s life that is what’s happening right now. The question as a community should be how are we going to respond to that?”
He plans to make a submission opposing the government’s move-on orders, which require an amendment to the Summary Offences Act.
“My biggest fear right now is that kids are going to be pushed out of the city centre, out into the forgotten suburbs where they’re going to get missed, they’re going to be at greater risk of harm and of abuse, exploitation and we’re not going to be able to connect with them and give them the support that they need,” Hendry said.
“What we are seeing is that the support structure is not there to support tamariki when they are experiencing homelessness right now and we need to be doing a lot more work to ensure that children get the support they need.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
