Housing push delayed as homeless turn to showgrounds

A push for council halls and facilities to be considered for emergency accommodation has been delayed, as homeless Tasmanians pitch tents at the showgrounds. LATEST>>

The Glenorchy City Council has put off discussing the possibility of using council owned halls and facilities as crisis accommodation because of a technicality - coinciding with an increase in the number of homeless people pitching tents at the showgrounds.

Part of the motion, moved by Ald Kelly Sims, was for council officers to prepare a report on the viability of using the council owned resources.

“It’s investigate now, not demand action is taken directly from this motion, it’s important we go through the process,” Ms Sims said in the meeting.

Kelly Sims runs a housing Facebook page and is concerned about some of the trends she is seeing. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Because the motion was only submitted six days before the council meeting instead of seven days, the council have voted to put off the discussion.

“Council has already taken action to address homelessness in our city,“ Ald Gaye Richardson said.

“I’m suggesting we defer the motion until next month to give council more time to get more information.”

Ms Richardson’s procedural motion was accepted and councillors, aside from Ms Sims, voted it be deferred.

Ms Sims told the Mercury it was disappointing the motion was deferred.

She said under the Local Government Act councillors can put up a motion with or without notice.

“The motion gave them two months to do the work which arguably was the rationale for them to defer it,” Ms Sims said.

“It’s the typical politics our community are sick of.”

Ms Sims said members of other councils in Tasmania and on the mainland have asked to copy the motion.

Meanwhile the number of homeless Tasmanians sleeping in tents at the Hobart Showgrounds has increased.

“I’ve noticed in last month more and more presentations,” Royal Agricultural Society of Tasmania president Scott Gadd said.

“We prefer to screen them before we agree to let them stay and if they do the right thing we’d let them stay but if they don’t they’ll be asked to leave right away.

“There was a period where I shut it down and said we won’t take anyone, people stopped coming here.”

Tents at Hobart Showgrounds Picture: Linda Higginson

The DA for the next stage of the Hobart showgrounds redevelopment is being assessed by council officers, and Mr Gadd worries what will happen when works do begin.

“There’s going to be a period in the next couple of months as we prepare for the redevelopment where we turn off the gas and water and move the toilets,” Mr Gadd said.

“I’m going to go from a guy who helped the homeless to a guy that kicked them all out.

“We can’t avoid that.”

Mr Gadd said more support was needed.

“Three years on since I’ve first raised this and I think the problems got worse not better,” Mr Gadd said.

Tents at Hobart Showgrounds Picture: Linda Higginson

“We need more crisis accommodation and support services, we need to deal with the peripheral issues, the barriers to housing.”

Push to turn council owned halls into emergency accommodation - June 27

A GLENORCHY alderman will call for the council to investigate what halls and facilities it can temporarily convert to emergency housing as the weather gets colder.

Alderman Kelly Sims said the issue was one which many might not see as a council responsibility, but action was needed at a local government level to address the “dire” situation.

“Local governments are the closest level of government to communities and have a responsibility to provide for the health, safety and welfare of their community,” Ms Sims said.

Glenorchy City Council Alderman Kelly Sims. Picture Nikki Davis-Jones

On Monday Ms Sims will move a motion at the Glenorchy general meeting to take more action, including that the council investigate which land and property it owns which can be repurposed in times of emergency and that a homelessness advisory committee be investigated.

“Let me be ultra clear in that I realise shelters are not a humane long-term solution, they are the final safety net that can often scrape extremely close to the ground,” Ms Sims said.

“But from the feedback I’ve received from those actually living it locally in this weather, especially from those with children, is that having access to a sheltered and safe space, even for a very short period of time, would have been much better than not at all.”

Ms Sims said she’d recently been in contact with a couple in their 40s who were living in a council carpark.

“They said around the car park there was a few couples and people just waiting in cars.

“It’s the safest place for them on weeknights because there’s lights.”

Ms Sims said the couple told her they’d had featured in a recent media story alongside a politician and were subsequently moved along by the council.

“They got really upset and went back to this politician,” she said.

“The politician went and spoke to the council, now they’re back in a council carpark.”

A Glenorchy Council spokesperson said the council had not requested anyone to move on from any Council carparks.

“Council is aware on an ongoing situation and Community development officers have reached out to offer support and assistance to those affected,” they said.

The idea for facilities to be used already has some support from the community.

Glenorchy District Football Club president John McCann said the club would be open to discussions about the use of facilities at KGV, which is owned by the council.

“We’ve got change rooms, they’re open spaces that have showers and bathroom facilities,” Mr McCann said.

“It is a particularly severe winter and no one should be living on the streets.”

Glenorchy Football Club president John McCann. Picture: MATT THOMPSON

Mr McCann said the club had raised the idea of using the facilities before.

“Service organisations said it had to be properly supervised,” Mr McCann said.

“The football club ourselves don’t have the resources to supervise but we’d happily collaborate with service organisations or government agencies who want to deliver a plan to assist these very vulnerable members of our community.

“The ball’s in the council’s court.”

Ms Sims said long-term solutions were also desperately needed.

“There’s simply no housing and that’s the real problem that none of us at this level can meaningfully address,” Ms Sims said.

“Opening up public spaces with the capacity for short-term emergency shelter during our most desperate times is one thing, but more permanent medium and long-term solutions are needed at both the state and federal level to actually solve the spiralling homelessness epidemic for Tasmania.”

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