Capital moves to keep vagrants off its streets

The Wellington City Council is considering a bylaw that would sweep homeless people off the streets and arrest anyone sleeping in public.

The bylaw, now being drafted, bans sleeping, camping and "residential activities" in public spaces and means the homeless could be moved if people felt intimidated by them.

Mayor Kerry Prendergast said the bylaw, to be voted on next month, was designed to make the city safer, healthier and better, "not just for The Lord of the Rings premiere in November but for the future".

Civil libertarians were outraged, describing the bylaw as a draconian and possibly illegal move by the city's "beautiful people".

"Poor old Rob [Robert Jones, the Wellington man with the bucket and bedroll who died this week] is not even cold in his grave and they are thinking of calling people like him criminals," Council for Civil Liberties acting chairman Michael Bott said.

"It's bullying tactics from the chardonnay set."

Council officers were reworking the bylaw, drafted earlier this year, that banned camping and sleeping in public spaces, but left the homeless alone unless they were causing problems.

Ms Prendergast said it was not good enough to leave the homeless alone when council surveys showed people were intimidated by them.

"People have a right to do what they want to do but not when it impacts on other people."

The bylaw was mostly about dealing with offensive behaviour. But she was considering issuing trespass notices to alcoholics living in Glover Park on Ghuznee St.

The homeless people say they are not causing any problems. A businessman, however, said his complaints about the park had been ignored by the council and police.

"You try walking here in the morning when it's knee-deep in urine."

Downtown Community Ministry worker Pam Whittington, who knows many of the city's homeless, said the Glover Park occupants were so sick they could not live in shelters or homes.

Two needed regular stays in hospital. The council needed to find them another place to camp.

Mr Bott said their right to roam had been enshrined in common law for centuries. He doubted that the council could pass the draft bylaw as it had to consider the Bill of Rights first.

The initial draft bylaw was useless, he added, as it defined sleeping as camping and could cause councillors to be arrested for falling asleep during boring meetings.

Councillor Bryan Pepperell did not support a "fascist solution". The city has to "learn to tolerate these people".

But when behaviour became a risk to other people it needed to be dealt with.

- NZPA