Enmore Park rough sleepers moved into crisis accommodation as Inner West Council cracks down

Rough sleepers camped out in a park in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s inner west electorate have been moved on after residents raised complaints and safety concerns.

Tents belonging to homeless people in Enmore Park have disappeared. Picture: Jeremy Piper

A growing community of rough sleepers camped out in a park in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s inner west electorate have been moved on by council staff after residents raised complaints and safety concerns.

Around six or seven homeless Sydneysiders are understood to have been staying at the camp in Enmore Park, living in their cars, vans or tents, when Inner West Council notified them they would be evicted come February.

Kerry Rosse, a former rough sleeper who was living in Enmore Park when The Daily Telegraph first reported on the encampment in May 2023, said council staff gave the increasing number of campers two weeks’ notice to leave by January 31, before putting up signs and erecting barricades around the tents.

Having previously found herself being moved on without warning by police in other parts of the city, Ms Rosse said she was “nothing but grateful” and “really impressed” by Inner West Council’s approach.

“The thing that really upset me was that they said we’d rejected all help. I have PTSD from being attacked, I couldn’t just move into emergency accommodation where people are screaming all the time,” she said.

Enmore Park in May 2023. Picture: John Grainger

Enmore Park today (February 11).

“I turned around and said to them, if I feel safer in a tent, then what does that tell you?”

A letter was given to campers earlier in January informing them they would need to leave, as offers of emergency and short-term housing “from our non-government partners have not been accepted”.

Kerry Rosse, formerly a resident of the encampment, has since found safe, long-term accomodation. Picture: John Grainger

“Council values the safety, health and wellbeing of all our community and visitors. Enmore Park is not set up for camping and is a public space. We need to balance the interests of all our residents in being able to use public space,” the letter read.

Included at the end of the note was a list of support services and phone numbers.

The group camping out in Enmore Park or sleeping in cars and vans in its carpark had reportedly grown substantially by the time council intervened. Picture: John Grainger

It is understood the council, alongside crisis accommodation providers and homelessness outreach services, was able to put a roof over the heads of all but one of the campers, who had subsequently decided to pitch their tent elsewhere.

A spokeswoman for the Inner West Council said the issue of homelessness is taken seriously, and that support for those living in Enmore Park was provided “over many months”.

“As a result of a respectful process, Council was able to assist individuals into accommodation,” she said.

“Assisting the homeless into accommodation also allows for greater allied health support and services to be provided.

“Council has also committed to longer term solutions to homelessness. In 2023, Council offered up ten car parks and depots to state and federal governments for conversion to public housing. Building new public housing is the real solution to homelessness.”

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