Demand for more powers to move on Auckland's 'nuisance' rough sleepers, drug users

Business owners in Auckland's city centre say antisocial behaviour has gotten out of control, and they want the streets' rough sleepers, drinkers and drug dealers to be moved on.

It comes amid repeated calls for more officers on the beat and a police station reinstated downtown after a series of high-profile shootings.

The city's business association urgently wants a bylaw changed to give council the power to trespass people when they are a risk to public safety.

Heart of the City chief executive Viv Beck said antisocial behaviour had become a significant issue and it was distressing people.

"People who have set up businesses, who are living in apartments here, they have a right to a good environment. It's their back door, their front yard.

"Some of the bad behaviour needs to be addressed. People who need help should be helped, but people who are behaving badly, there should be rules around that."

The Auckland Council Public Safety and Nuisance Bylaw was last updated in 2019 - Beck said as it stood, it did not go far enough.

"It needs to be reviewed quite urgently so that it's very clear to people what is and isn't okay on the street and how the compliance is going to be met.

"The question we've asked is, could there be a law that you can trespass from a public place if someone is causing an ongoing nuisance? It shouldn't be okay for people to be behaving in an intimidating way that is clearly distressing others without any form of consequence."

Vivace restaurant is on Fort Street in downtown Auckland, a few hundred metres from a pedestrian area on the corner of Queen Street that was the scene of a fatal shooting a little over two months ago.

Co-owner Mandy Lusk supported a bylaw change to give council the power to remove people causing a nuisance.

"Pretty much nothing good ever happens there. There's been a double-shooting recently and there's multiple fights down there. Our staff… most of the time we try to drive them home even if they live in the city. Most people try to avoid that end [of the street]."

Lusk said some nearby apartments that previously housed international students were filled with deportees from Australia who needed more support than was offered.

"They are housed, but they're just coming on the street to drink and buy drugs and deal drugs. If there was the ability to move them on it would make a big difference."

To try and boost business, Lusk had been encouraging customers to buy a voucher for dinner.

She got a good uptake, but said many are fearful of getting from A to B within the city centre, especially at night.

"Some of them still come in but they now jump in Ubers and things; they don't even walk up Queen Street, they have said they feel intimidated, they've been followed, harassed. That's a little heart-breaking."

'Atmosphere of dishevelment'

The city centre is part of the Waitematā Ward, councillor Mike Lee saying the antisocial behaviour created a feeling of "mayhem".

"If this atmosphere of dishevelment and anything goes, people lying all over the street, lying in footpaths, in doorways, is allowed to go on, it's degrading the environment and it's clearly giving signals that this place is not safe."

Lee said the council needed to take responsibility, and agreed the bylaw needed amending to deal with persistent begging and rough sleeping, in a humane way.

"A strengthened bylaw will be able to give real teeth to the council's response to this."

Lee said he would seek to start a review of the bylaw. The process was set out in the Local Government Act, and started with deciding whether to start a review, followed by an investigation to propose a change to the bylaw and consider any public feedback on the proposal, before the council governing body makes a final decision.

Both Beck and Lee said emergency and social housing was available in the city, including Kāinga Ora's recently opened complex of 276 apartment units on Greys Ave.

Bad vibes for visitors

Meanwhile, this cruise season more than 50 ships will call into Auckland, bringing an estimated 250,000 visitors - a 50 percent increase on last season.

"We need to turn this around," Beck said. "We're hitting the tourism season now, we've got a bumper cruise season ahead and we're open again to the world and we have to get on top of this before it becomes a major problem."

Although looking forward to a busy summer in the restaurant, Lusk said she would be giving safety advice to her customers.

"I've worked in Vivace for 32 years and I've never not felt safe wandering around late at night. I'm scared with the tourists coming back - it's awful to have to tell people not to walk down the lane opposite us and things like that."

Lusk also said she sometimes called on private security guards hired by Heart of the City - which had doubled its spending on crime prevention to $620,000 in the year ending June.

"These guys are a private security firm that patrol the inner CBD now, big gentle giants, and they are very present and they are there very quickly if we do have problems," she said.

"If they see guys drinking and causing problems they will literally walk them out of the area. They've made a significant difference."