Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner has ordered council workers to take steps to remove people sleeping in tents from the city’s parks. Source: The Catholic Leader.
Mr Schrinner told media on Thursday that people living in parks would be given 24 hours’ notice from that day to move on before camps would be deconstructed by council officers, aided by police.
His reasoning for the decision was that in the lead-up to Cyclone Alfred, people living in parks were reportedly offered safe accommodation and refused.
He said this decision showed people were choosing to live in parks.
The decision was also made after the City of Moreton Bay made homeless camping a crime on public land with a fine in excess of $8000.
Mr Schrinner said there had been reports of people moving south to Brisbane to dwell in parks as a result.
St Vincent de Paul chief executive officer Kevin Mercer said the society wanted to see fewer people sleeping in tents, but believed the solution was better access to affordable housing, “not by simply moving them somewhere else”.
He said SVDP believed in an “housing-first approach” but it needed to be “combined with support and meeting individuals where they are to help break the cycle”. He said they needed more housing and support to meet the current need.
Many people sleeping rough in tents had turned to Emmanuel City Mission at South Brisbane during Cyclone Alfred.
Operations manager Tim Noonan said he was grateful for Brisbane City Council’s help with managing their response to people sleeping rough during the cyclone emergency.
ECM was able to extend its daytime sanctuary to night-time sanctuary during the cyclone, he said, providing overnight shelter for six nights to more than 100 people sleeping rough.
Mr Noonan said he had never seen their regular visitors in a better state of mind than after six nights in their sanctuary.
Safe shelter, readily available amenities and food, he said, put them in a better frame of mind to be making decisions about their future.
FULL STORY
Brisbane council wants rough sleepers out of parks – here’s what Catholic outreach providers are saying (By Joe Higgins, The Catholic Leader)
