Gang of homeless 'zombies' wasted on drugs angers Rotorua business

A person on the street is caught on camera smoking a bong. Photo / Supplied

A video showing a man smoking a drug bong in the central city has gone viral and highlights what a fed-up business says is its daily grind of dealing with "wasted" people lying about, spitting, coughing and urinating outside its building.

The video on social media, which has had more than 320 shares and attracted more than 350 comments , shows a group of people gathered on a corner of a central Rotorua street. A man puts a substance in his bong, lights it up and smokes it.

A staff member from a nearby business who filmed the antics, and who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was a daily occurrence of frightening, intimidating, rude and socially unacceptable behaviour she, her colleagues and other businesses in the area endured.

Her boss, who also spoke to the Rotorua Daily Post on the condition they were not identified, said they wanted the old Rotorua back and this behaviour was unacceptable.

She said she felt for genuine homeless people but most of those hanging around weren't behaving like this because they were homeless, she said it was because they were "wasted" on drugs.

The business workers who witnessed Tuesday afternoon's antics called police, who attended.

Rotorua police acting area commander Inspector Phil Taikato said someone was arrested on the fringes for disorderly behaviour but the drug bong could not be found and no drug charges were laid.

He said policing drug use in the central city was complex because police needed to have a "reasonable belief" illegal drugs were being consumed.

He said there were some synthetic cannabis products that were legal and they needed to be certain they were staying within the law when searching and making arrests.

He said his staff had recently sent off samples of synthetic cannabis sourced from the streets in Rotorua to ESR for testing.

"We are pretty sure that the substances do form the category of being illegal and as a consequence, we can start policing it from that viewpoint. ... Prior to that we are only acting on assumptions and we have to be mindful of not breaking the law. We can't act on assumptions, we need a higher power of belief and we should get that shortly."

Taikato said police could not arrest people for being "vagrant".

"Police can't arrest its way out of this problem. They could be smoking normal cigarettes or tobacco in that bong. The issue is they are standing around and vagrancy is not a crime."

Tiny Deane runs the Night Shelter on Pukuatua St. Photo / File

The woman who filmed the man using the bong said she called police because she went outside and could smell the strong stench of what she believed was cannabis.

She said when the police communications operator questioned her about whether she could be sure they were smoking something illegal, she decided to film it, something which she was able to do without being seen.

"It was just atrocious behaviour. They were a pile of them and they were going for gold."

She said she had no qualms about putting her video online and calling them "bas***ds" in her comment as she felt no one was doing anything.

"If they aren't urinating on the walls, spitting, smoking their drugs, they are piling up their trollies in the corner and carrying their flags. They shouldn't even be raising those flags if they're not going to respect them."

The woman said her workplace wasn't the only business suffering.

"The real homeless are the ones at Sulphur Point, in their tents and keeping to themselves. These ones don't want to better themselves. If they can go out and buy their drugs, they can go and pay rates."

The business owner said she felt everyone was going around in circles and there was no leadership dealing with the problem now.

"We are having meetings about meetings and nothing is being done to solve this problem now."

She said genuine homeless people were grateful for help and did what they could to better themselves.

She said the people hanging around the streets and Kuirau Park during the day were like "zombies" who had created their own "gang" or community that was fast becoming normal for Rotorua. But she said that shouldn't be tolerated.

"The numbers are increasing, they pi*s in the gutter and they are off their trollies. They can afford to get wasted because they don't have to pay for anything else. It's a bloody good lifestyle apart from when it rains."

Tiny Deane, who runs the Night Shelter on Pukuatua St where many of the people on the street stayed at night, said recent publicity about the homeless had resulted in a flood of people who had offered land and money to help.

It was his dream to set up tiny homes on land somewhere that had no neighbours where the homeless could gather, get help from social services and not upset anyone.

However, he said any new plan needed to be thoughtfully carried out to ensure he wasn't just moving the problem.

"It's a way of solving one problem but I seem to create another one. We just need to get them out of the CBD and get them out of town so that the CBD survives.

Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick. Photo / File

What the mayor says

Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick said once solutions to the housing problems were in place, there won't be a need for a night shelter in the city centre.

The Rotorua Daily Post asked Chadwick for comment in response to the business community being fed up and in a written response thought the council's communications team she said the council and police were taking a zero-tolerance approach to anti-social and illegal behaviour.

She said it was essential people reported illegal behaviour by calling 111.

She said Safe City Guardians and security partners were actively de-escalating situations before they become incidents and the city's CCTV cameras were being monitored and information shared with police.

She said the council was working as fast as it could to find solutions and progress was being made.

It was partnering with Central Government, its agencies and key stakeholders to address some of the issues that were "of concern for us all".

She said simply providing housing wouldn't solve all the issues.

"We also need to ensure we have services and support available for people who need it. With appropriate solutions to our housing issues in place we should no longer require a night shelter in our inner city. We also need more community police and more community mental health and addiction services – we've made that clear to Government and our housing plan partners.

"My role as mayor includes working with Central Government and its agencies to get support for and investment in solutions for the issues we're experiencing in Rotorua, including housing and social issues. The establishment of Housing First in Rotorua a year ago, and the Government's confirmation of its commitment to investing in solutions for Rotorua, are crucial to enabling us to progress with solutions that should have an impact on more than just the supply of homes in our district.

"People may not always see what's happening in the background, but I can assure the community and inner-city businesses that we are doing all we can, we are working as hard and as fast as possible to address issues of concern, and that we will work with them to resolve these issues."