An agency working with Auckland's homeless community says a noticeable rise in street hustling doesn't mean more are living rough.
Karangahape Road. File image Photo: 123RF
Businesses along Karangahape Road, an area typically welcoming of rough sleepers, have seen a rise in antisocial behaviour since the first lockdown.
However, Lifewise says anyone who wants to be housed in Auckland's CBD has been and is currently sleeping in motels at night.
The charity estimates roughly 600 people have been put up in emergency accommodation in Tāmaki Makaurau since the first lockdown in March.
It's been funded through a $107 million package announced in April to temporarily help vulnerable people in need of housing into motels.
Lifewise chief executive Jo Denvir said while it was a positive step it was not a permanent solution and has not put an end to begging or hustling on the street.
"Most people are in motel accommodation at night but in the day they hang out on the street doing normal hustling and drug taking activities have potentially increased.
"They're still visible to people in the city but I guess one of the messages is yes, there is a lot of activity on the streets but they all sleep in motels at night."
That increased activity has come to a head on Karangahape Road; an area that has enjoyed a typically harmonious relationship with rough sleepers in the past.
The causes are complex but Lifewise said the city's street community was now concentrated in the CBD with new faces from different parts of the region.
"Karangahape Road has also got the road works so that creates a bit of a bottleneck. It's the area of the city that's still has activity so it's still busy and there are people around," Denvir said.
Karangahape Road Business Association head of safety and security Teisina Tua knows most rough sleepers personally, having worked in his role for seven years.
"I used to know all of the homeless so it was easy for me to talk to them and if I told them to move on or stop they would listen to me.
"But the new ones are very hard; we we don't know each other so they do whatever they want."
Tua said he was seeing more fights and put it down to an increase in synthetic drug use and disruptive road works.
He said it made his job harder but said it was also tough on local businesses already struggling to make ends meet after not one but two lockdowns.
"I know some of the businesses. I feel sorry for them after the first and the second lockdown because new faces of homeless people came to K Road.
"Sometimes they call me; can you please tell them to move on. That's the problem. They know they're allowed to sit there and when I talk to them they don't care."
Tua said things quietened down last week with some rough sleepers shifting to Queen St as the city slowly came back to life in level 2.5.
