KEY POINTS:
An elite secondary school in central Auckland whose pupils are being plagued by glue-sniffing and drunken vagrants claims the council is doing nothing to solve the problem.
"We are desperate," said the principal of ACG Senior College, Kathy Parker, whose school has become a haunt for vagrants who congregate most nights inside a large, sheltered doorway in Rutland St.
They smoke drugs, drink alcohol and abuse passers-by. Often the homeless stick around during the day and pester students for money.
The stench from urine is so strong in summer that classroom windows have to be kept shut.
Food scraps, bottles and glue bags are cleaned up daily by building manager Rob Boston.
But the school says its pleas to Auckland City Council have fallen on deaf ears.
"I am not sure which is worse, dealing with the bureaucracy of the council and police administration or putting up with the homeless," Mr Boston said in an email to city councillors last Friday.
Harold Moorcroft, building manager for The Aucklander, a 14-storey apartment block next door to the college, agreed. He said students were asked for money and abused.
His building had been broken into several times and tagged.
Ms Parker said Senior College had a policy of caring for people and collected for the City Mission, but in this case it had to think about the care and health of 500 students, who pay $13,800 a year in fees.
The school, housed in a historic building on the corner of Rutland and Lorne Sts, has one of the best academic records in the country.
"All I want is the council to do something," said Ms Parker. The school should not have to spend $15,000 to $20,000 a year hiring a security firm.
She criticised Mayor Dick Hubbard for taking three months to respond to a letter last year and not crossing the road from his nearby office to discuss the complaints.
A spokeswoman for Mr Hubbard said yesterday the mayor responded to Ms Parker's letter on February 21 within 24 days of receiving it.
Community planning manager Pam Bourke said the council had responded several times in the past year to complaints from the school.
One of the difficulties was that the school was close to the Methodist Mission in Queen St and more people lived rough in that part of the city.
The council had offered several solutions to help the school, she said.
These included a review of safety features around the building, increased cleaning of the footpath, extending the security contract with the nearby central library to the outside of the school building and establishing a system with the council call centre and city ambassadors to respond to complaints.
The council was also working with the Methodist Mission, City Mission and Salvation Army to set up a two-person team to deal with issues around homeless people after hours from next month.
Ms Bourke said there was no quick solution to the problem of homelessness. Homeless people had multiple problems ranging from mental health issues to drug and alcohol abuse, their behaviour was often a public nuisance but not illegal, the police did not want to fill their jails with people who were a social services issue and there were limited accommodation options.
The police officer who deals with homeless people in the city, Rob Cochrane, could not be reached for comment.
HOMELESS AND UNHEALTHY
The school has complained about ...
* Pupils being plagued by drunk and drugged vagrants.
* The stench of urine being so strong school windows have to be kept closed.
* Food scraps, bottles and glue bags have to be picked up daily.
The council is proposing ...
* A review of safety features.
* Increased cleaning of the footpath.
* Extending security contract.
* Establishing a complaints process.
