Christchurch council pushes plan to help the homeless as begging skyrockets

November 21, 2017

Business owners have noticed an increase in begging on the street, and want the council to do more to solve the problem.

Christchurch City Council says it's working on an initiative to help the homeless, as the increasing number of beggars on the streets highlight the problem.

Homelessness has skyrocketed since the Christchurch earthquake, with a recent street count finding more than 210 people living on the streets. 

But even more are begging, many of them said to be not homeless, and that has left some living on the streets feeling they now have to prove they are in need.

The city council is working on a Housing First initiative to tackle the issue.

"I'm really focussed on trying to get those people who are in and out of houses the proper support, so they do stay off the streets when they get a house," said city councillor Deon Swiggs.

The initiative is currently awaiting approval from central government.

One homeless man told 1 NEWS he hasn't had a home since the earthquake. 

"Everytime I applied for a house I go to back to the bottom of the list," he said. 

Another homeless man said: "You only really find out who the real homeless people are if you go through the abandoned buildings or if you go down the street at, like, three in the morning."

Christchurch City Missioner Matthew Mark says some beggars in the central city are taking advantage of those who are genuinely homeless.

"Anecdotally I could probably say that 85 or 90 per cent of those who are begging, we have an awareness that they actually have a roof over their head," he said.

The issue with beggars escalated last week when one disrupted the city tram line and was verbally abusive to the driver when asked to move.

Paul Lonesdale of the Christchurch City Business Association said often beggars "can become quite aggressive, and some of the business owners get quite concerned about it, it interferes with their business".

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