An advocate for a group of homeless people being forced from a makeshift Whanganui camp site says the eviction a week before Christmas is inhumane.
Whanganui District Council is evicting about 15 homeless people from the council’s Kowhai Park freedom camping site and the reserve alongside it on Anzac Parade.
On Monday, the council served the campers notices saying they must remove their belongings and leave by Wednesday.
“They’re extremely distressed,” said Sherron Sunnex, founder and manager of charitable organisaton The Koha Shed.
“A lot of them have chronic mental health issues. Mental health organisations that are involved with them are also anxious and extremely distressed for their clients.
“If they don’t have shelter they’re going to have to sleep in doorways or hide in bushes like stray animals. Is this how we treat human beings?”
In February last year, speaking about the issue of homelessness in Whanganui, mayor Andrew Tripe said the council needed to show compassion and care for those who were homeless.
“These are human beings,” he said at the time. “For whatever reason, they’ve found a challenge in life where they don’t have a home. At the end of the day, we’re here for the community and these people are part of our community.”
But on Monday, Tripe said the council had been forced to act following complaints of intimidation and assault, both physical and verbal.
“There is no good time to do this,” Tripe told Local Democracy Reporting. “We’ve got to a point where, whether it’s Christmas next week or not, we need to act before something serious happens.
“We’re responding to our community on health and safety grounds first and foremost. We need to protect our community.”
Tripe said the council remained committed to supporting “the vulnerable in our community who are genuinely homeless”.
Asked if he believed those camping at the reserve were not “genuinely homeless”, he said: “I understand some of them have their own houses, some have family members to go to. They’re choosing an alternative lifestyle – that’s entirely up to them.
“All we’re saying is the site is no longer safe.”
Tripe said the council had been “very reasonable, very patient”.
“We have the People Centre engaged to work alongside those who need a home, to help people into housing and to sustain their tenancies.
“There are some who have chosen not to take up the offer. We’ve exhausted our efforts there.
“For those willing to seek help, we have provisions in place. We’ll continue to be there for those that are genuinely homeless.”
Sunnex said The Koha Shed together with Whanganui iwi Tūpoho and others had been looking for a site where homeless campers could live while more permanent solutions were found.
“At the moment there are services and agencies coming down daily to dish out medication and pick people up for appointments and whatever they need.
“I come down here twice a day and if there’s any callouts or problems, I come down here no matter what time of the day or night it is.
“For them to start to fit into the wider community, first of all we need a community of support around them, and that’s what has been developing.”
Sunnex said the council’s actions had thrown the homeless group into crisis.
“These people have nowhere to go. Their belongings will be removed and they will be scattered throughout the city.
“The progress we have made with those who have engaged with alcohol and drugs services will be completely lost.”
Sunnex said there were about 15 homeless people living on the reserve and at the freedom camping site, some with animals.
“They don’t want conflict. They just want to live peacefully until something else is found for them.
“We have been making progress and there are at least five people that we just need a week or two to get things sorted for them to move on, some out of town and to other places. We’ve been slowly working on that with them.”
The Koha Shed chairwoman Sharon Duff said the homeless campers had built themselves into a strong community and were happy at the riverside base.
“But a lot of people in our community say they just want this issue to go away.
“You can’t just magic people away. We’ve got to face up to this as a community.”
On Tuesday afternoon, a number of campers had left the reserve and a family member was helping another to take down his tent and pack up his scant belongings.
Duff said the homeless community was moved to the reserve recently under instructions from the council, who wanted to free up the adjacent freedom camping site for boat racers attending a five-day event.
An earlier solution involving private land in Whanganui East had fallen through.
It is understood a vacant site on Victoria Avenue in the city’s CBD could be made available temporarily by Tūpoho.
Supporters were looking on Tuesday afternoon for portaloos for the site and making plans to tow cars and help campers move their belongings on Wednesday.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
