The new camp out zone for rough sleepers in Rotorua. Photo / Stephen Parker
Crowds of people with shopping trolleys, blankets and old bags containing their belongings are congregating at Kuirau Park during the day. Journalist Kelly Makiha finds out why they are there.
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Kuirau Park has become a day-time hangout zone for homeless, those living in emergency housing and other rough sleepers, sparking debate about the image they are portraying for the city.
Some say it's a bad look around one of the city's most famous and free tourism hotspots while others say it's better they are there than loitering around central city streets.
Fed-up businesses have this week approached the Rotorua Lakes Council and the Government demanding action.
At least one central city business owner has told the Rotorua Daily Post she's welcoming the move to Kuirau Park because she worked in fear following a frightening incident with a woman, who she believed was homeless, breaking into her salon and refusing to leave.
Every day between 30 and 60 people take their belongings, including supermarket trolleys packed with clothing, blankets and food, to Kuirau Park where they spend the day talking, eating and, according to some spoken to by the Rotorua Daily Post, smoking synthetic drugs.
Tiny Deane, who runs the Night Shelter, said he told the "homeless" to move to Kuirau Park after businesses expressed concern about people hanging around the streets.
He said when the Rotorua Lakes Council removed seating on the corner of Pukuatua and Amohia Sts outside St Luke's Church, the problem of the homeless congregating seemed to get worse instead of better.
Deane said when he saw a woman walking a child up Pukuatua St and physically pick her up and carry her on the other side of her body opposite where the homeless were sitting out of fear, he knew enough was enough.
Deane said he rang the council and told them he would encourage the homeless to move to Kuirau Park because "businesses were ropeable and the public was scared". He said ideally he would erect some tiny homes or even just a marquee and portable toilets for the people to go during the day but he was having trouble finding land to do it on.
"To be honest, I didn't know what I was creating (moving them to Kuirau Park)."
Deane estimated about 20 per cent of those at Kuirau Park were from his Night Shelter, the others were from emergency housing providers and he believed some were Black Power prospects.
He said he worried where the city was heading.
"We need to make a plan ... If we don't have something in six months, our town will become derelict. The council can spend hundreds and millions of dollars making our town pretty but no one will come here any more. I have seen the people around here digress into something quite scary in the last three to five months. Anxiety, drugs, mental health. It's just so ugly. I'm trying to contain it but I can't."
The Rotorua Daily Post asked the council a series of questions including whether it was better having the people at Kuirau Park than in the central city and whether there were concerns about the "look" given it was a tourist attraction.
In a written statement, chief executive office manager Craig Tiriana said the council was aware people were congregating in Kuirau Park and it was closely monitoring it.
He said Safe City Guardians and security staff patrolled daily in the central city, including Kuirau Park, and dealt with any issues they witnessed.
"Anti-social behaviour should not be tolerated and it's really important people report anti-social or criminal behaviour to the police immediately so action can be taken and we get an accurate picture of what is occurring."
He said the council continued to work closely with the police and there were 48 fixed CCTV cameras operating in the central city, now being more regularly monitored by staff.
Arvan Kaur from Sukh Beauty, near the corner of Amohia and Pukuatua Streets, said she and the other two owners worked in fear. When she worked alone, she locked the door while treating a client.
She said one client who used to come to get her hair done from Tauranga said she wouldn't be back after her daughter, who was playing with toys near the front window, witnessed a man standing outside with needles in his arms.
The worst moment for Kaur was in December when a woman jumped through their open window to gain entry while she was alone in the salon treating a client behind a curtain. The unknown woman walked into their kitchen area and made herself a coffee.
She said the woman, who appeared to be suffering from mental health issues, refused to leave and chanted she owned the business and the land.
Kaur said she ran out of the shop and called police, but police didn't come. She said she went across the road and was yelling for help and after 45 minutes a passing couple went into her business and forcibly removed the woman, who knocked over the display cabinets in the process.
"My body was in shock for two days."
No arrests were made.
Fellow owner Hillary Pound who operated Zhoosh U in the same building said some people came into the salon and tried to take items off the counter or blatantly asked clients for money.
Pound said the homeless shelter and emergency housing should not have been allowed in the central city. She said she shouldn't be forced to move her business.
"It costs a lot to move a salon. I've been here two years and the last six months has got so bad."
Long-time Rotorua businessman Mike Steiner, from Steiners Interiors by Reputation on Pukuatua St, said he had been meeting with fellow business owners in recent weeks and on Thursday morning had taken action by writing a letter to the council and the Government.
Although he wouldn't disclose publicly exactly the issues the businesses had endured or what they were asking for, he said it was fair to say they were "very, very concerned for public safety and the safety of our employees".
"We know it has to be a collaborative approach and we will do the best we can ... We are trying to be responsible about it."
Steiner said he personally didn't believe the announcement this week by the Government about a launch of "place-based assessments" to reduce the housing problem would do any good.
"I don't even understand it ... It's not addressing the real day-to-day concerns we are experiencing in the city right now."
Hennessy's Irish Bar owner Reg Hennessy, who has previously been vocal about the homeless issue, said the day-time move to Kuirau Park had done little to remove the undesirables and evenings were still a frightening experience for some.
Rotorua police acting area commander Inspector Phil Taikato said police would attend offending, not perceptions of offending.
He said family harm in Rotorua was "out of the box" and police would put resources into policing that problem ahead of things that didn't look good.
"Are we going to put our resources into ensuring the perception is up to scratch or are we going to be looking after those vulnerable kids?"
Taikato said while the police were closely monitoring Kuirau Park, it was their job to keep all members of the community safe.
"People have a right to stand around in a public place whether by themselves or in groups, there is no law against that."
The Rotorua Daily Post asked Rotorua Economic Development chief executive officer Michelle Templer if she was worried about Rotorua's tourism image.
In a written response through her communications team, she said it was pleasing the Government had recognised that a "place-based" approach to finding solutions to the housing shortage in Rotorua was being given priority.
"Rotorua is well known as a great place to visit and we're fortunate to have so many people in the local tourism industry working in partnership with us to showcase this destination."
Rotorua lawyer Prue Mcguire is afraid for Rotorua.
As a Family Court lawyer, she regularly walks from her Hinemoa St office down Tutanekai St to the courthouse on Arawa St and has in recent months watched the city she loves deteriorate.
She was astonished to hear family members who appeared homeless strategically talking about where they had been to ask people for money, and instructing another family member to "stay down that end cause I've got this end".
"They were dividing the city up to beg for money."
She said the Night Shelter and emergency housing providers in the central city were destroying the CBD.
"You see them hanging around the Grand Treasure with no shirts on drinking coffee, having cigarettes and chewing on their chicken bones. The other day I saw some kids who were probably staying in the city doing some chalk drawings on the footpaths and I thought, 'Oh that's quite sweet' but when I got closer it was gang symbols they were drawing'.
She said emergency housing was "making slums of areas around town and making it unsafe".
She said she and her husband had lived in Rotorua all their lives but soon their children would leave to go to university.
"We are starting to wonder, what are we doing here? We loved Rotorua and the lakes and it's been really good to us but I don't even like it any more and a lot of people are saying it."
Mcguire is imploring the community to act urgently for the sake of the city.
"We need to stand up, move all emergency housing out of the CBD and reclaim this town."
A disregard for authority could be why those attending court are thumbing their noses.