Adelaide homeless problem — Shelter SA warns of ‘tsunami of rough sleepers’ in the CBD
THE number of people sleeping rough in Adelaide’s CBD has surged since last year and business owners are having to clear away food scraps and even bottles of warm urine from their doorways.
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THE number of people sleeping rough in the city is up 44 per cent from last year, as one East End business owner says she’s had enough of cleaning up “bottles of warm urine”.
The number of rough sleepers in Adelaide’s CBD and parklands soared in August 2016 and has remained high.
In a survey in February this year by the Inner City Street Crew, 123 people were identified to have “slept rough” for at least two nights.
Figures released by the Department for Communities and Social Inclusion show 110 people were counted in May, compared to 76 people at the same time last year — a 44 per cent increase.
But the state’s peak housing organisation, Shelter SA, warns Adelaide is about to face “a tsunami” of rough sleepers.
The crew will conduct another survey this month. One retail owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said she was confronted daily by the issue outside her East End shop.
“Every single morning, I’m going in and holding my breath to see what I’m faced with,” she said.
“From food strewn all across the doorway, cigarette butts butted out in the carpet, half-eaten food, I’ve moved bottles of warm urine, tissues.”
She has been empathetic, and even befriended a man who had occupied their doorway, giving him food and storing his bedding.
He’s now moved into a boarding house but the owner said “there’s definitely been an increase is the amount of rough sleepers around”.
At weekends, sleepers line the storefront preventing customers from window-shopping, and recently, homeless people began entering the shop, asking customers for money.
She has made contact with council and police, has put up notes in the shop window asking rough sleepers to be respectful, and has now put up a ‘no camping’ sign so they can be moved on. “The other day, I came in and there were cigarette butts wedged under the door,” she said.
“If the store catches fire, then everything we’ve been working for ... goes up in flames — that would just be devastating.
“As empathetic as I feel for them in their situation, it’s really not good.”
Shelter SA chief executive Dr Alice Clark said a lack of affordable private rentals and jobs was driving the increase of rough sleepers.
“The emergency accommodation that we have is usually full, so we probably could do with more,” Dr Clark said.
She said establishing housing targets that South Australia must meet under a national housing and homelessness agreement between states and territories would be the first step towards change.
Another East End business owner Steve Maras said it was a “worrying sign” for Adelaide and that someone needs to take responsibility.
“This is a reality, what’s happening in Sydney and Melbourne,” Mr Maras said.
“We live in a city that has everything going for it, there’s no reason why we, collectively with local, state and federal government, can’t actually address the problem and help these people.”
Last week, rough sleepers in Sydney’s Martin Place were forced to dismantle their ‘tent city’ and move on.
Social Housing Minister Zoe Bettison said the State Government was spending $64.8 million of homelessness this financial year.
She said a reduction of 13 from the February 2017 count indicated that initiatives such the Inner City Street Crew were having an impact.
“The Street Crew provides an immediate response to people rough sleeping within the Adelaide CBD and surrounding parklands,” she said.
“In addition to the Street Crew, the State Government funds a broad range of services within the inner city area that provide emergency accommodation, meals, counselling and other material assistance to people who are homeless in Adelaide.”