‘Head and heart’ approach to city homeless
Staff at Nelson Provincial Museum are being forced to escort visitors out of the building amid growing concerns about homeless people in the central city.
At a council meeting last week, museum chief executive Lucinda Blackley-Jimson, along with representatives of the business community, called for help to address homelessness in the city, saying staff no-longer felt safe alone in the building, children were having marijuana smoke blown over them outside, and the front entrance “reeks of urine”.
“This Monday just passed, a family was afraid to leave the museum, and two staff escorted them across the road. It impacts our tamariki.”
Council chief executive Nigel Philpott and mayor Nick Smith met with police this week to discuss the issue, and the council has also signed a contract with the Male Room to try and help facilitate people into housing.
At the council meeting, Blackley-Jimson said she had been forced to park elsewhere after copping abuse for reporting an incident to police, and staff had to attend to an intoxicated person for an hour while they waited for an ambulance.
“We work in museums because we are passionate about sharing our culture and heritage. We’re not employed and nor are we trained to be security guards, support workers or nurses.”
The aggression had increased in recent weeks, she said.
“Our staff and our contractors are afraid.”
Simon Duffy, from Uniquely Nelson, said homelessness had increasingly become an issue over the past 12 to 24 months.
“There’s a clear consensus, the time to step up and find sustainable solutions for the betterment of Nelson City is now.”
Smith said they needed to take a “head and heart” approach to addressing homelessness, and they had met with police to look at ways to address the issues this week.
“The key advocacy that I wanted heard was the need for additional foot patrols in our central city.
“The sorts of reports council heard last week, where we have people openly urinating in the street, threatening staff, and visitors to a museum, retailers having to close their shops early out of concern for the safety of their staff, and instances where children visiting the museum were having cannabis smoke openly blown in their face, they are all just totally unacceptable.”
The council would also work with police to increase CCTV coverage in the city to aid enforcement, he said.
While the council, alongside police, would be looking at increasing enforcement, they had also entered a contract with the Male Room, Smith said.
“We do genuinely want to support people into sustainable housing solutions, but we also, need to have a hard head in ensuring, this sort of, criminal behaviour is not tolerated, particularly, in our central city.”
The city needed to “get on top of” the issue before it became too big of a problem, he said.
The Male Room director Philip Chapman wouldn’t comment on the contract, but said they were seeing increasing need.
“We had 50 people through here last week, I think in a day.”
Council’s group manager community services Andrew White said the contract would provide initial assessment, referrals and help, for people experiencing – or at risk of – homelessness.
“Homelessness is a complex problem in cities across New Zealand and a responsibility for a range of organisations. Council is an important part of the jigsaw puzzle in Nelson, but the picture isn’t complete without a collaborative and empathetic approach from all relevant agencies.
“There’s no one-size-fits-all solution … These people may need specialist wrap-around services including access to supported living.”
The council does not have specific rules regarding homelessness but the Urban Environments Bylaw covers some of the activities associated with homelessness.
Nelson Bays’ Relieving Area Commander, Acting Inspector Mark Kirkwood said police were supporting the council and social agencies to address issues around homelessness and rough sleepers.
“Police take enforcement action when required, including arrests and issuing liquor ban infringement notices.
“Rough sleeping, begging or being homeless are in themselves not criminal offences but police are called from time to time to deal with issues around matters involving public disorder or complaints about antisocial behaviour.”
Many of the people they dealt with had complex needs and welfare issues, he said.
“Police will seek to use alternative resolutions and referrals to partner agencies to assist with specialist help. We aim to engage, educate, encourage and learn from all interactions.
“On occasions we will exhaust all options and have no alternative but to take enforcement action.”
By Warren Gable, Nelson Mail
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