City working on rescue plan for homeless

Auckland's homeless will soon get a 24-hour reception service and their own court to help them - rather than chase them - off the streets.

The city council has abandoned a proposal for a bylaw to ban loitering, begging and sleeping in doorways in the central city.

Instead, community services committee chairman Paul Goldsmith is writing to Prime Minister John Key asking for a minister to take responsibility for the homeless, starting with more inner-city emergency housing and a "special circumstances court" for a small group constantly in court for minor offences such as urinating in a public place.

"Some have been through the court dozens of times and are out on the street doing exactly the same thing the next day, so what we are doing at the moment doesn't really work," he said.

"The idea of a special circumstances court is that it would have a wider range of responses available to it and more remedial measures such as making people go into rehabilitation."

Chief District Court Judge Russell Johnson said he had already discussed the idea with police and social agencies and hoped to have a special court operating by August or September.

"I envisage it would involve, in the ordinary list court, the judge remanding cases identified by the prosecutor to a special circumstances court date which might be held once a month, say," he said.

"In the meantime, they would be hooked up to a programme of some kind, and at the end of it the monitoring would occur."

Mr Goldsmith's committee voted in December to spend $50,000 on developing a bylaw after complaints about homeless people sleeping on footpaths.

But the council's finance andstrategy committee directed city officials to report back to it on a range of options.

This week, the officials reported that any bylaw aimed directly at removing homeless people from the streets could breach the Bill of Rights.

Mr Goldsmith said he had met police, social agencies and the director of the US Interagency Council on Homelessness, Philip Mangano, who visited in March.

"In the States they have made more progress if you make one official responsible for tackling the problem," Mr Goldsmith said.

"In many American cities it's the mayor. That's not really appropriate in New Zealand because 90 per cent of the social policy framework is dealt with by central government here."

The manager of the Methodist Mission's Lifewise service in Airedale St, John McCarthy, said social agencies were working together to create a 24-hour service "hub" as an initial contact point for homeless people.

"It might combine the existing multiple agencies that are on site at Lifewise, and some primary services out of Lifewise such as food provision, and it might encompass the night shelter for some emergency accommodation," he said.

Housing Minister Phil Heatley said officials from Housing New Zealand, the Social Development and Health Ministries and Te Puni Kokiri were working on solutions, including crisis accommodation and support services.

Dr Nikki Turner, who runs a medical clinic at the Auckland City Mission, said the biggest gap was the lack of support for people who had been placed in housing but were "borderline coping".

"A lot of these guys need a lot more support, particularly for people with ongoing mental illness."

"We have medical services, we have inpatient care, and we have drug and alcohol services, but we are not helping people in their day-to-day functioning, making the day work."

HELPING HAND

* More inner-city emergency housing.
* Special court to direct homeless people to get help with addictions or mental health.
* One minister to take responsibility for homeless.