The mayor of Western Australia’s largest local government area by population has called for a coordinated approach to deal with an increasing number of people begging at traffic lights.
Key points:
- ABS data shows WA homelessness has increased by 8.6 per cent in five years
- WA has the highest number of rough sleepers in Australia
- A homelessness service has confirmed it relocated a homeless man to a public park because of a lack of crisis accommodation
City of Stirling Mayor Mark Irwin put forward a notice of motion for council to investigate ways to tackle the growing issue of homelessness in Perth’s outer suburbs.
He said it was “impossible” to travel through the City of Stirling without feeling unsafe at traffic lights.
“I specifically recall one day when I drove to work and then had to go to a function, and I passed four separate sets of traffic lights where there was a coordinated approach by people who are experiencing homelessness or had signs up saying they were collecting at traffic lights,” he told Stan Shaw on ABC Radio Perth.
“And it was a constant, trying to look away trying to avoid it.”
He said over the past two years the city had received 41 reports relating to people begging and that the community felt “threatened” and “unsafe”.
“Sometimes there are those people who have still got their squeegees, quite often the squeegee looks like it’s going to make your car more dirty than clean, and then they have an expectation they’re going to get paid for it,” Mr Irwin said.
“People should be able to feel safe at a set of traffic lights while they’re driving home from work, driving home from school, picking up the kids, without feeling threatened or having to give someone money.
“I have no problem with people giving money, but it needs to be given to agencies so they can actually do the real work.
“The problem with the people at traffic lights is I have a strong feeling most of this money is going towards drug-taking and we have a lot of evidence of that.”
Homelessness on the rise
According to census data released today, WA has the highest proportion of rough sleepers in the country.
The number more than doubled from 1,083 in 2016 to to 2,315 in 2021.
Overall, homelessness in WA has increased by 8.6 per cent in the five years between the 2016 and 2021 census.
The number of people experiencing homelessness in WA had risen to 9,729 people — an increase of more than 720 people since 2016.
Mr Irwin said the city needed to meet with outreach agencies, local members of parliament and police to address the cause of the issue.
“The only way we can deal with it is actually fine the people who are at the traffic lights — we don’t think that’s going to be a solution,” he said.
“So, people who are genuinely experiencing homelessness … we have partnerships with agencies and we can work on finding them accommodation.”
Mr Irwin also said there was evidence the groups of people asking for money at traffic lights were coordinating with each other.
“The people with the signs, they meet up at areas, there’s lots of drug-taking,” he said.
“We recently saw this down at the Three Oceans site, where we had a big clear-up this week.
“There was literally almost 100 used needles on the ground with those same signs that you see people standing at traffic lights with, [there was] human faeces.
“It was absolutely disgusting — these areas need to be cleaned up so our community can feel safe.”
Police target roadside begging
WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said officers were issuing move-on notices to people begging on roadsides.
“There used to be a law against begging for money but that’s been removed, so there’s no way to enforce the begging part,” he said.
“But there is a safety issue with being on a road, and then there’s also an intimidation issue, or safety issue for people.
“Police have been doing targeted operations on this, we use move-on notices and then, if they breach that, then we’ve got a power of arrest under breaching of the move-on notice.”
Commissioner Blanch said police had noticed an increase in roadside begging because of cost of living pressures, but encouraged the public to call police when they noticed regular activity at intersections.
“We’re out there, issuing move-on notices, and then charging them if they return, but that doesn’t solve the initial cause of the problem,” he said.
“We don’t want people to feel intimidated at the lights and police will respond.”
Relocated to a public park
Mr Irwin said the City of Stirling had a partnered with community service organisation Uniting WA to provide outreach services using state government funding.
But Stirling residents, who did not want to be identified, told the ABC they were concerned homelessness agencies had relocated an individual at Talia Reserve in Stirling last month.
“This is the second time a homeless person has taken up residence in the bushland — it is a sad indictment when our civilised society is unable to provide for our less fortunate,” the residents said in a group statement.
Uniting WA confirmed outreach workers had moved a man experiencing homelessness from a private property to stay in Talia Reserve when they were unable to find crisis accommodation for him.
“As housing shortages and cost of living pressures in Perth continue to rise, more and more people are being pushed into homelessness than ever before,” a spokeswoman said.
“This has resulted in people experiencing homelessness becoming more visible in suburbs across the metropolitan area.”
She said the man had since found accommodation and had moved from the park.
However, a City of Stirling spokesman said the City did not approve the relocation of the man to the suburban reserve.
Uniting WA delivers an outreach service in partnership with the City of Stirling which is funded by the State government.
“This service adopts a holistic approach that sees the Uniting Outreach team work to build connection and a foundation of trust with people sleeping rough in the City of Stirling,” she said.