Beggar problem gets aggressive

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‘‘They still just did it because they wanted to, because it was a really good way to make money.’’ Ian Littleworth

Attacked, harassed and threatened by beggars twice in as many days, Soren Olson says he’s had enough.

Olson is calling for urgent action to be taken after he was racially abused and set upon by two beggars in Palmerston North on Monday when he wouldn’t give over his newly-purchased dinner.

The following day, he says he was harassed and threatened again by another beggar when he wouldn’t cough up any change.

‘‘It’s not that I have this hate for [beggars]. I go to [Golden Takeaways] and buy them chicken fried rice, I give them money. But that’s two days in a row... I’ve just had enough,’’ he said.

Amid pressure from central city business owners, the Palmerston North City Council is revisiting a previously discarded anti-beggar bylaw that would see them banned.

The bylaw, binned after concerns it was not the best way to deal with the problem, was brought back to the table after a ‘‘softly-softly’’ social work-led approach found there was a small group of beggars working together to make money – and not for food.

At the time, mayor Grant Smith said the so-called beggars were holding ‘‘residents, businesses and visitors to ransom’’.

On Monday, Olson was walking on Broadway Ave, having purchased a kebab from Cafe Eminem, when he was stopped by a man and a woman outside the ANZ bank.

The male called him a derogatory name and demanded his kebab.

Olson told the pair to ‘‘f... off’’, prompting them to become more aggressive, yelling in his face. He crossed the road to escape, but they followed him and began hitting him, he said.

A passer-by saw the scuffle and called police about 5.40pm.

A police spokeswoman said officers spoke to all three people involved and gave them a warning.

The very next day, Olson had another encounter with a beggar. This time, he says he was harassed and threatened when he didn’t give them any change.

Despite his experiences, Olson said the council shouldn’t just banish beggars from the central city. It also needed to step up and help them with their financial, housing and/or mental health issues.

But, such an approach had already been tried with the help of MASH Trust, and while addressing the needs of genuine beggars had its benefits, it didn’t fully address the problem, council community engagement manager Ian Littleworth said.

‘‘There was a group we could help that did stop begging, but there was another, smaller, core group that this approach will never address.

‘‘They still just did it because they wanted to, because it was a really good way to make money.’’

Instead, in addition to revisiting the anti-beggar bylaw, the council was trialling a ‘‘place activation’’ approach to get beggars to move on from the central city.

Littleworth said the idea was to encourage cafes and restaurants to put out more tables and chairs on the footpath, leaving no room for beggars. A two-to-three-month trial would run at The Lab on Broadway Ave, a ‘‘prime begging spot’’, to see if it worked, or if it would just move the problem 50 metres down the road, he said.