‘We’re tired of mess, blood on the streets’
THE owner of a kebab shop in the city’s CBD is cleaning blood off the sidewalk. It has been another violent night of fighting among the homeless, he shrugs.
He is also resigned to doing it again tomorrow morning.
“Drug addicts” urinate, defecate and sleep in his Southport Kebabs doorway on Scarborough St in Southport. Some will return during the day to steal drinks from the fridge in front of his counter.
“It’s become such a repeat event that we don’t even bother to do anything anymore,” says the owner, who doesn’t not want to be named.
Further down Scarborough St, David Gross and his staff at Educare College are picking up the “mess and rubbish” left by vagrants who have slept under his carport or on the front steps.
CCTV footage show people “smoking pipes” and “sniffing substances”.
“They leave their mess and rubbish for our staff to clean up every single morning,” he said.
A number of fed-up shop owners along the strip engaged council and police in a number of meetings to voice their complaints and to see what could be done.
They say the problem is “out of control” and “disgusting”.
“We are all trying to run a business and despite meetings with police and council there hasn’t been a drastic improvement in relation to these issues,” Mr Gross said.
“It got to the point where we needed to take matters into our own hands by installing alarms and CCTV cameras.
“One business owner told me he is shutting up shop after
14 years and going elsewhere because he just couldn’t take it anymore.”
Mr Gross said he was told by council and police to make complaints through Policelink, Queensland Police’s online reporting system.
However, he said the system was “flawed” and “hamfisted”.
“There needs to be more detailed categories to choose from when making a complaint. The main issue for us is trespassing and when I’ve tried to make a formal complaint the system sends an auto-reply requesting us to ring with our concerns.
“We also haven’t seen a heightened police presence in the area, despite promises made during meetings that regular patrols of the area would be conducted. Overall, I
would say there has only been a slight improvement.”
Queensland Police Inspector Scott Knowles said Southport Police were working with a number of community agencies to address the ongoing issues.
“To date, we have housed over 80 people classified in the rough sleeper category,” he said.
“The number of those considered as rough sleeping or homeless has been on the increase due to the impacts of the Covid-19, where we are seeing a major rental shortage.”
Inspector Knowles said the problem was “multifaceted”, with “substance issues” being of “significant concern”.
“We are continuing to address these issues and if any businesses are facing these
problems, we encourage them to contact us. Anyone caught undertaking illegal activity will be dealt with accordingly,” he said.
Division 6 councillor Brooke Patterson said council, city laws personnel and police had a “frank and fearless” conversation about the challenges businesses were facing with anti-social behaviour in the area.
“I understand how much stress this is placing on business owners and their staff,” Ms Patterson said. “Since the meeting, city public space liaison officers have continued to work one by one with each of the homeless individuals in the nearby area to find alternative housing and support.
“The police have also taken enforcement action on several occasions in this location
where criminal activity has been established. In more than one case, city and local business CCTV footage has led to a conviction.”
Ms Patterson said council discussed “keeping the area as clean as possible”. “I went down to the site again myself in November and assisted with the clean-up of numerous bags of rubbish left on the door step of these businesses,” she said.
“The shortage of public housing in the area is not helping the situation, which is a responsibility of state government. It’s also important to remember that until recently, the city had no formal homelessness protocol, as this has not historically been a remit of local government. We will continue to monitor the situation, as will local police.”