An Auckland woman saw council workers collecting rough sleepers' belongings. Photo / Luke McPake / RNZ
By RNZ
An Auckland woman who gave tents and sleeping bags to a group of rough sleepers says she stopped council workers from removing the items a few days later.
Some days, Pip Scott walks to and from work in the central city with her dog, and stops to talk to those sheltering at Grafton United Cricket Club overnight.
The building has bleacher seats and a roof, and Scott recently gave the people sleeping there two tents, sleeping bags and a pillow.
“I have lots of conversations with homeless people on the way to work and most of them are really friendly,” she said. “I just feel, you know, they’re just going through a rough time, but they always like to say hello to my dog and have a chat.
“You can visibly see it, if you’re walking around the streets. There just seems to be a lot more people [who] have come into hard times."
A few days later, Scott was walking past, when workers exited an Auckland Council van with black rubbish sacks and started collecting the belongings.
She said the men who slept there were absent, but had stashed the tents and sleeping bags in a small pile under the shelter.
“They had found the place where the people had stashed all their warm stuff to sleep in and they were pulling it down out of its place. I walked straight up to them and said, ‘Do not take their stuff - what are they going to do? They’ve got nothing else to keep them warm and it’s been freezing this week’.”
Scott said the council workers left without taking the rough sleepers’ belongings, but she was horrified they had tried to collect it.
“It’s upsetting and I don’t know what the answer is, but taking people’s stuff from them is definitely not the answer,” she said. “Imagine coming back from your day and you’re about to bed down to sleep on some concrete stairs, and someone’s taken your last warmth or barrier for that.
“I just think it’s cruel.”
Auckland Council compliance manager Adrian Wilson said there rough sleepers had no designated areas to store belongings and the council was exploring possibilities for this.
He said council staff would seize items when they were not removed and “anything of value, including tents, sleeping bags and personal items are stored”.
The council retained such items for six months, if they were not claimed.
“Council staff make every effort to identify the owner of any property left unattended. They initially leave notices requiring the individual to remove their items.”
Social services have warned of worsening poverty, due to economic hardship.
On Tuesday, Auckland Council’s Community Committee will discuss a report that updates the number of homeless living on Auckland’s streets. The number of homeless people rose to 809 in May this year - a 90% increase since last September.
This followed the release of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development’s latest Homelessness Insights Report, which showed 14 percent of people leaving emergency housing were likely homeless.
The council report identified two key risks in response to the data provided by outreach services.
Auckland Council received more than 500 requests from the public related to rough sleepers in the past 10 months. Head of community impact Dickie Humphries said these ranged from concern about a person’s welfare to reporting bylaw infringements and blocked doorways.
He said the increase in rough sleepers was concerning.
“We are here to make sure that the city in this region is a thriving city for all and Auckland is experiencing homelessness [that] is the antithesis of that vision, so we find it very concerning.
“The causes are complex, and what we’re hearing from our agencies and what our observations are, is worsening social and economic conditions for people, but that is felt most acutely for those who are already quite vulnerable or on the margins.”
He said the council was working with social service organisations to respond to concerns from residents and actively patrol the city.
“We do have constraints on our resources and the best way to make inroads on this is to do it together.
“No one institution, no one organisation can solve this alone, so [getting] more value out of our offer here from Auckland Council to the region will come through the partnerships that we have.”
- RNZ