Tuesday 5 April 2016

Begging ban won’t work - meaningful long-term change will

Begging is an issue for Wellingtonians – but introducing a bylaw banning begging won’t work says Deputy Mayor Councillor Justin Lester and Labour’s Mayoral candidate for Wellington.

“A bylaw would treat begging as primarily a criminal rather than a social issue – and there is no evidence from cities with such bans to suggest that this is an effective means of ending or significantly reducing begging.”

“In fact, the international evidence indicates banning begging in one area would push it into another and may even push people into criminal activity to replace the begging income lost.

“Intimidating or threatening behaviour by beggars is already illegal under national laws and victims or witnesses are encouraged to contact the Police. Passive begging, such as quietly sitting with a sign, is not illegal.”

Funding was reprioritised in early 2015 by Councillor Paul Eagle, chair of the committee responsible for the city’s social services, and a total re-think into managing begging commissioned.

A report titled “Begging in Wellington – an exploration into our community’s issue” was authored by internationally renowned ThinkPlace.

Cr Eagle says “We’ve never fully understood the reasons why people beg but we knew begging was growing into a major issue. When we asked Wellingtonians what they thought of begging, they told us the problem was significant – it’s well above the national average.”

The process undertaken by ThinkPlace includes an illustration of the experiences from various stakeholders such as retailers and businesses, council’s street outreach team to those who beg and people walking through the city’s streets.

“Rather than banning begging, we need to create meaningful, long term change.

That means Council taking a clear position on begging and acknowledging it’s a national social issue. We’ll also be adopting a completely new approach that will see us managing the streets better and improving public engagement” says Cr Eagle.

Council’s Community, Sport and Recreation Committee will discuss the report on Wednesday 13 April.

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