An Auckland woman who gave tents and sleeping bags to a group of rough sleepers says she stopped council workers from removing the items a few days later.
A few days later, Scott was walking past, when workers exited an Auckland Council van with black rubbish sacks and started collecting the belongings.
She said the men who slept there were absent, but had stashed the tents and sleeping bags in a small pile under the shelter.
“They had found the place where the people had stashed all their warm stuff to sleep in and they were pulling it down out of its place. I walked straight up to them and said, ‘Do not take their stuff - what are they going to do? They’ve got nothing else to keep them warm and it’s been freezing this week’.”
Scott said the council workers left without taking the rough sleepers’ belongings, but she was horrified they had tried to collect it.
“It’s upsetting and I don’t know what the answer is, but taking people stuff from them is definitely not the answer,” she said. "Imagine coming back from your day and you’re about to bed down to sleep on some concrete stairs, and someone’s taken your last warmth or barrier for that.
“I just think it’s cruel.”
On Tuesday, Auckland Council’s Community Committee will discuss a report that updates the number of homeless living on Auckland’s streets. The number of homeless people rose to 809 in May this year - a 90 percent increase since last September.
Emphasis mine, but holy shit, a 90% increase in homeless people in Auckland in less than 12 months.
I’m sure this has nothing to do with this government’s policy of kicking people out of emergency housing.
I am not even from New Zealand (was doom scrolling), and find this absolutely appalling.
After the post-COVID inflation problems, plus the first single party government since we ditched first past the post in the 90s who were left-wing and seen to do absolutely nothing with their power, plus all the right-wing propaganda in international media, the country voted in a coalition of right wing and populist parties. One of these parties campaigned on significantly reducing the wait list for emergency housing. Surprise, surprise when their solution was to make the criteria a lot harsher, basically preventing many people from being able to access emergency housing.
As mentioned in this article, it’s estimated that 14% of people leaving emergency housing were becoming homeless.
I guess the party met their commitment to reduce the wait list for emergency housing, but in the cruelest possibly way.
Look I hate the homeless as much as every other cbd worker but you cant just steal all their shit while they’re gone. Thats fucked up thats their entire home. If you want to move them along then at bare minimum you need to give them a chance to pack up their stuff and take it with them.
We’ve gone from greens fucking up the cbd with homeless to labour fixing it to National saying “hold my beer” and fucking things up even worse. This is not worth the minuscule savings from emergency housing costs. The worse part is everyone knew this would be the result and national did it anyway.
Punching down is its own reward.
