Indigenous leader says homeless people are treated ‘like animals’, after Jenny Hill claims people with homes are choosing to stay in parks

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Homeless people in Townsville are treated “like animals”, a prominent Indigenous community leader has said, after the city’s mayor reprimanded charities and outreach groups for providing food and services to people living in parks.

The Townsville mayor, Jenny Hill, told reporters on Wednesday she intended to confront agencies and “literally put them on the mat” for feeding and providing laundry services for the homeless, which she said “enable” them to “live a lifestyle” in public spaces.

“Providing food in the parks enables people to stay in the parks,” Hill said.

“Providing clothes washing in the parks means that many of these people that actually have a home, don’t go home and continue to stay in the parks – everything else they need is there.

“There’s a couple [of community agencies] I’m going to visit this week and literally put them on the mat.

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“It is not just a police response any more in some of these areas. It is about what some of these agencies are doing in enabling people to live a lifestyle without holding them accountable for their actions.”

The comments were made as the council announced it would spend $13.3m on community safety initiatives, including CCTV cameras, vehicle patrols and other initiatives.

Aunty Jenny Pryor, a Bindal woman and former commissioner of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, now the chief executive of Townsville Indigenous group Bindal Sharks, said the mayor “should have found out the facts before she made those statements”.

“Some people have no choice about living in parks, especially after the floods, accommodation is very scarce,” Pryor said. “I’ve helped a couple of people, mothers with children, to get emergency accommodation. There’s people who live in the park because there’s nowhere else.

“Does she want more people to die in the park? Considering she’s been the mayor for so long, I think she’d have more sense.”

Pryor said the city’s response to a growing number of people living rough had been to lock up toilet blocks, preventing people from using the amenities and accessing fresh water.

“A lot of people go there. When the council treats them like animals and doesn’t open up the amenities, toilets and taps, then naturally the site is not any good.

“Under the circumstance now we have got a crisis.”

Pryor said many people from remote Indigenous communities, particularly Palm Island, were forced to come to Townsville to access services and medical care, but the city did not have the facilities to house them.

“It’s quite sad you’ve still got 45 acres of land at Aitkenvale sitting vacant, for the last 50 years. That could have been set up to accommodate some of the issues. But instead the blacks get blamed.”

Hill has been contacted for further comment.