https://archive.md/7YfYp
"The Hutt St Centre has accused Adelaide councils of acting “heartlessly” by
repeatedly dismantling the tents of homeless people, calling instead for
designated areas where rough sleepers can camp safely with access to toilets,
showers and drinking water.
Camping in the city’s parklands without a permit is banned under Adelaide City
Council by-laws, carrying fines of up to $1250 and $50 a day for continuing
offences.
The council also has powers to confiscate possessions and order people to move
on. Advocates say evictions from Adelaide’s south parklands are now occurring
every few days as the housing crisis deepens.
Hutt St Centre chief executive Chris Burns claimed that council workers often
waited until a rough sleeper had left before seizing their belongings.
“Where do they think the tents come from? Organisations like us,” Mr Burns
said.
“People come to us for lunch and return to find the few things they own have
been thrown in the bin. It’s just morally wrong.”
He said the practice often left people with nothing.
“Taking away the roofs over their heads is traumatic enough. But when they take
the tent, they take everything inside – prescription medicine, ID, even family
photo albums.
“All they can do is come back to us asking for another tent, another blanket,
new ID, help with a prescription. Then it all starts again.”
Mr Burns said his conversations with Adelaide City Council suggested officials
were more worried about the visibility of tents than the welfare of those
forced to live in them."
Via
Guardian Australia
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
