City vagrants get hurry-along for Apec

By Bernard Orsman and Tony Wall

Vagrants who sleep in the Auckland Domain will be kicked out during the Apec conference in September and offered free beds elsewhere.

Police insisted yesterday that they were not planning to embark on a cleanup of the central city as occurred before the Apec meeting in Vancouver, Canada, in 1997 and in Harare, Zimbabwe, before Commonwealth leaders meet there in 1991.

But homeless people spoken to last night said they had noticed a police crackdown on the streets and parks where they slept.

Police say they will offer the dozen or so regulars who doss down in the Domain a comfortable bed elsewhere while world leaders gather at the Auckland Museum.

The police operations commander for Apec, Detective Superintendent Peter Marshall, said it was central to security to keep the Domain free of people during the conference. It was planned to close it to the public for about 48 hours.

A parliamentary select committee will hear submissions on the proposal in Auckland on Tuesday.

Mr Marshall said the police had no intention of cleansing the streets of vagrants.

They would be offered comfortable accommodation and possibly meals, although he did not know where they would go or how much it would cost.

One man who sleeps in the Auckland Domain said police had begun issuing "no trespass" notices to homeless people sleeping there and in all areas around it as far as Parnell. He said the tough approach started about three weeks ago.

A policeman roused him from a bush where he was sleeping, issued him with a trespass notice and told him to move along. He and friends had also been banned from using a shower under the Domain grandstand.

Others spoken to said police were getting tough with the central city homeless.

"I think they're pathetic," said Raymond Murphy at the Auckland City Mission last night. "They won't deal with the homeless problem long term; they just put us in a hotel."

Another man said: "I wouldn't be within two miles of the Domain during the conference. I'll just go somewhere else and when they go away I'll come back."

At the Auckland Central police station, Duty Inspector Peter Gibson said he was unaware of any specific
directive on vagrants.

Mayor Christine Fletcher said there was no intention of hiding people from view.