Opinion: Begging ban debate may have do the job

A sad dog might motivate some to give to beggars. Photo / Getty

OPINION

Begging is a curious business.

Anyone with any sense can see it's no way to live.

Sympathetic eyes see it as a desperate business no person would choose if they had any other option.

Critical eyes see nothing but lazy scammers that prey on vulnerable people.

I gave money to a beggar once, a few years ago, on a cobbled street in Nice, France.

He had a dog that looked sad, which was part of it, but to be honest I think my main motivation was practising my shaky French with a few kind words.

It was a brief interaction but the feeling I walked away with was not good. I did not feel kind, I felt like I had perpetrated a social ill.

I've never quite shaken that feeling, and I don't give to beggars now.

Begging is an issue that has been on the rise in the wider Bay of Plenty in recent years.

Last year I watched and reported on Tauranga's City Council's attempts to grapple with the issue locally.

The result of over a year of discussions and investigations was the narrow passing of a bylaw banning begging and rough sleeping within five metres of the doorway of shops and eateries in the CBD, Greerton and downtown Mount Maunganui.

The bans will become law on April 1 - April Fools Day, more than one person has pointed out to me - this year as part of the council's revised Street Use and Public Places Bylaw.

I'm not a fan of the bylaw; I don't think regulation is the answer to an inherently social problem.

But I wondered if I was wrong when retailers and a social agency leader in Greerton reported great improvements this summer, with far fewer beggars.

Had the impending threat of the council breaking out its ruler in April driven them out of town? To Rotorua, perhaps, where suburban retailers called for a begging ban.

People in Greerton, however, credited initiatives to house homeless people and convince people not to give money to beggars as the main drivers of change, rather than the incoming bylaw.

Interesting. Too soon to tell what the long-term result will be, of course.

But maybe the begging ban has already served its purpose, via the widespread media coverage and public conversation around the emotive and polarising debate.

Maybe it helped spread the useful message about not giving money to beggars.

So maybe that's what Rotorua needs: the debate.