Kiri Gillespie: Thank goodness the begging ban quagmire is over

Tauranga City Council pictured in 2018, voting on begging and rough sleeping bans. Photo / File

Tauranga's controversial begging and rough sleeping ban is no more - and that's a good thing.

Begging and homelessness affects cities all through New Zealand, and the world. But I feel it shouldn't come solely down to local councils to manage these issues.

Yesterday, Tauranga City Council voted to revoke its begging and rough sleeping ban completely. The narrow decision comes three years after tiresome back and forth, for and against. Even yesterday's decision was not unanimous with six votes against four.

It should never have got to this point. Yet, here we are.

When the city's ban was first explored in 2017, I felt the issue was complicated and convoluted. The side-issues affecting why someone is on the street in the first place are often tremendous, and that's not including the allegations of fake beggars intimidating people on the street.

In Rotorua, the local council faces a similar issue with homelessness.

Retailers in the CBD have complained about homeless people causing issues that impact their businesses, putting pressure on the council to intervene.

Other cities in New Zealand have also made their own attempts at introducing rules to help manage similar issues, with little success.

They also faced legal challenges. In Tauranga, this took the form of an application for a judicial review by the Tauranga Housing Advocacy Trust, concerned the bylaw was a breach of the Bill of Rights.

The council faced an estimated legal bill of $110,000 if the case went to a hearing. It did not stop them last year from voting to then continue ahead to retain the ban.

No wonder the begging ban situation descended into such a quagmire.

In December, Tauranga MP and National leader Simon Bridges said Tauranga City Council should stick to its guns and fight the legal challenge.

I don't agree. It shouldn't have been left up to the council - and its ratepayers - to bear the risk and cost of testing the law on this.

It seems to me the council had few options. Something had to be done to address the calls from retailers and others saying begging was becoming out of hand and a safety issue. And if that was my grandmother being accosted in the street by either fake or real beggars, I'd want something done.

The key to solving this is a joint approach involving not just council, but the Government and other social agencies to address the reasons behind the problem, such as mental health and addiction issues, displacement and poverty.

And if a legal approach is needed, central government should lead it and take the risk.

The blunt instrument of a begging ban in Tauranga was never the answer.