Neil Holdom: New Plymouth Mayor on homelessness crackdown

Homelessness is facing a crackdown in New Plymouth as people sleeping rough are breaching bylaws, the district council says. 

Rough sleepers have been told to remove their belongings from footpaths. 

The district's emergency shelter closed in 2023. 

New Plymouth Mayor Neil Holdom talks to Ryan Bridge about whether the order is heavy handed, the number of rough sleepers in the district, and what responsibility local government has for the issue.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's go to New Plymouth. Rough Sleepers there have been
told to basically move on, remove your belongings from foot
paths or risk losing them. New Plymouth District Council says
homeless people are in breach of by laws by obstructing
public places. The district's emergency shelter close in twenty twenty three.
New Plymouth District Mayor Neil Holden is with me this afternoon.

(00:20):
Hey Neil Coday, Ryan, good, thank you. Is this a
bit heavy handed or I mean, are you allowed to
just go and take people's stuff?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, the reality is what we've done is said to
people that you're not meant to camp on the main
street of town, on the footpath and blocking shops and doors.
It's not heavy handed at all because what we've done
is we're actually we've invested in a social worker trying
to get these people into housing where actually we've got
a proposal coming on the first of April where we're

(00:51):
potentially going to be considering putting hundreds of thousands of
dollars into funding a home the shelter because the government
closed the last one. In partnership with YMCA, we've actually
put twelve million dollars into building social housing and we're
actually going to be building starting constructing some additional social

(01:13):
housing this year. But we don't want people camping in town.
That The issue that we've had there is we've got
it's a liquor band area. We've got people drinking in there,
we've got people taking drugs in there, we've got people
intimidating people, intimidating shoppers. We've got these parts of the
CBD have not felt safe, and then in the last

(01:35):
couple of weeks they've started building structures out of cardboard.
And what we've said is, look, we're trying to look
after you. We want you our people, we want to
find you shelter and food, and we're looking Our plan
is to get something in place before winter. You've got
to respect other users of town and we've had about
thirty complaints and the police have been called about nine

(01:55):
or ten times due to violence, intimidation, drug use, alcohol abuse,
and we just we want to look after these people.
But there's also an expectation that people obey the law
and give people the space to enjoy town and not
scared businesses or shoppers away from businesses, which has been happening.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Where do they go once you know, you take this
stuff away, you take the cardboard the way I mean,
until you've got the shelters, and where do the people go?
Do you reckon?

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Well, the reality is that I've heard already some of
them have made some arrangements, some of them going to
a local church area. The social workers that we've funded
and the group that we're looking at funding are working
hard to find places for them. And that's but what
we've actually said is we haven't said you have to go.
What we've said is you can't be I mean, we're

(02:46):
talking about a press all tables and building rooms on
the footpath out of boxes and bicycles. This isn't just
mattresses and blankets, Ryan, this is building a you know,
they're building a campsite and struck right in the middle
of the CBD. And we've so what we said, we're
not we have no right to move people on and
we're not looking at moving people. But we've said you

(03:08):
can't set up a trestle table outside a shop and
then start piling boxes on it and then build a
cardboard box bedroom outside somebody's shop.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
When the shelter, when the shelter comes, now, will it
actually do people move? They're like, when the old one closed,
did you have this problem? Or is it just a
group of people who for whatever reason will always be there.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
There's look, we think that when the shelter opens that
many of these people will they want They actually want
to be sleeping someway, warm and safe. And what they're
doing is clustering together, because you know that people pack
on homeless people. But what we've also had is because
they've been clustering together, we've got people that do have
homes that go, oh, there's some fun to be had here.
I can probably sell some drugs here. I can go

(03:53):
in there with them and sit there and drink in
town even though it's a liquerband area, and smoke some weed,
you know, in the middle of the days. And we've
basically said that that we're looking to support everybody. We
want an inclusive society and you know, my viewers, people
should be free to do whatever they want up until
the point that they start harming others. Yeah, fair enough,

(04:15):
and it has been harmed to others. So we've given
them seven days. I think the hope is that we
don't have to impound anything. And my understanding is they've
already they're already moving on some of them, they're moving
their stuff. We've taken a very softly, softly approach because
but the point of mate Ryan is you know that
the Prime Minister mentioned to us to get back to basics,

(04:35):
and I'm pretty keen on that. But the housing, welfare
and mental health are all issues that we pay tax
for for central government to deal with. Here's how much
the government has put into the solutions that we're working on.
How much not one not one dollar? They are nowhere
to be safe.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
To be fair, I mean, the thing is, you've got
governments who are paying welfare payments. There are housing programs,
there as housing assistance. I mean, the government's already paying
a lot of money. I mean, and there are people
who are hard, hard up who don't live on the street.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
You know. I look and I agree with that, right,
But I suppose So I've got on one hand the
Prime Minister telling me get back to Bay six years.
You're there to pick up rubbish, mo lawns, do the water,
and I'm happy with that. Then I've got the senior
bureaucrats that work for government saying Oh, we want you
to take a leadership issue on this homelessness, right so
you Neil, and we're not going to You're not going

(05:31):
to provide you any fun.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Now you're getting at both ends, Neil, I understand. Thank
you so much. New hold the new Plymouth District mayor.
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