BEGGARS OUT OF BOUNDS - WA Fremantles popular cappuccino strip - TopicsExpress

BEGGARS OUT OF BOUNDS - WA Fremantles popular cappuccino strip has been declared out of bounds for beggars under a new approach by the WA port city to tackle begging on the streets. Faced with an increasingly visible homeless population, the City of Fremantle has introduced a registration scheme for beggars, who are only permitted to operate in certain areas. Nine people deemed to be legitimately homeless have been registered by council rangers since August. Under the arrangement, the tourism thoroughfare of Market Street and some surrounding streets are off-limits. Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt said the ultimate aim was to help the homeless. Weve got community safety rangers here who speak with the people whore begging and get them in contact with the services that they need, he said. Dr Pettitt said the new approach was partly prompted by a rise in the number of professional beggars ... people who werent really in need and were scamming the system. About a dozen such people were moved on by authorities earlier this year. While the City of Perth has been pushing for legislation to make begging illegal, Dr Pettitt said banning the practice would only shift the problem elsewhere. He said the answer was to properly resource charities and services that support the disadvantaged. Its a real concern to us that those core services, like St Patricks here in Fremantle, that offer meals, showers and accommodation to many of the most disadvantaged people in Fremantle, that their services are under strain, he said. Services struggling to cope St Patricks Community Support Centre in Fremantle is at the frontline in the battle to help the homeless. It has been forced to turn away 272 people looking for assistance this year, compared to 154 last year, an increase of 77 per cent. Chief operations officer Michael Piu said the reasons were varied but included the fact that demand for emergency assistance and accommodation has grown. Funding and resources only stretch so far and we try and be quite inventive and think outside the square but theres only so much we can do, he said. The centre, which also provides meals for the homeless, has reported a 21 per cent increase in the number of breakfasts it provided in the first six months of this year, compared to the same period last year. Mr Piu said that was a good measure of the overall trend of increasing need, with families being a fast-growing demographic. Its regular that we will hear about families that are perhaps in very inadequate situations, he said. They might be living in someones shed or in a car and theres a sense of desperation as to what we can do for these families in a sustainable way, not just a night here and there. Long-term funding uncertainty creates issues St Patricks is one of 39 agencies and charities that have written to the Federal Government calling for long-term funding for the sector. Anglicare WAs CEO, Ian Carter, said there was huge uncertainty because funding under the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness has not been confirmed past June 30. Were seeing unprecedented demand for our services, more than weve ever seen before, he said. If that money is taken out of the system, were going to be in very dire circumstances in our community. GIULIO SAGGIN, FILE PHOTO: ABC NEWS Mr Carter said the uncertainty follows a boom time in funding for homelessness in recent years. Since 2010, the WA Government has spent over $122 million on new housing and accommodation. The Rudd governments reforms on homelessness were long overdue and probably the biggest change in 20 to 25 years in funding, Mr Carter said. In Western Australia, that translated into a $66 million increase over a four-year funding agreement. What concerns me is theres nothing now in the forward estimates at all. As the negotiations over funding continue, local authorities are under pressure to deal with the increasingly visible fall-out of homelessness. The City of Fremantle stressed that its registration scheme should not be seen as permission to beg, but instead as a tool to help rangers engage with the homeless. For me the worst kind of response is just to push it away and ignore it, Dr Pettitt said. It doesnt solve the problem and its not compassionate either. But the Mayor made it clear he was not suggesting that members of the public should donate to beggars. Take that money you were going to give, double it, and take it down to St Pats or some other community organisation so they can provide the real services people need over Christmas, he said. Copied and posted by EA