A north Queensland mayor says homelessness charities providing food and laundry services to people are "enabling" them to "live a lifestyle" in public parks.

Key points: Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill says feeding and helping the people living in parks encourages them to stay there

Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill says feeding and helping the people living in parks encourages them to stay there Inspector Glenn Doyle says charities do what is needed to help homeless people and are supported by police

Inspector Glenn Doyle says charities do what is needed to help homeless people and are supported by police Cr Hill says she will raise the matter with the Police Minister when he is in Townsville next week

Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill was speaking about the council's $13.3 million spend on public safety in the latest city budget.

While discussing the rollout of improved CCTV, lighting, path design and response initiatives, Cr Hill said she was also battling certain agencies in relation to antisocial behaviour.

"Providing food in the parks enables people to stay in the parks," Cr 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 agencies] I'm going to visit this week and literally put them on the mat."

While acknowledging police efforts to mitigate antisocial behaviour, Cr Hill said the responsibility often lay with the agencies providing those services.

"It is not just a police response anymore in some of these areas," she said.

"It is about what some of these agencies are doing in enabling people to live a lifestyle without holding them accountable for their actions.

"We support people wanting to assist groups in our community who are disadvantaged, but [not] assisting them to live in parks to become intoxicated in parks to become threatening to the rest of the community."

Cr Hill said she would talk to some agencies and "put them on the mat". ( ABC News )

However, Townsville police Inspector Glenn Doyle said he believed the charities offered valuable help.

"I don't necessarily think they're doing any harm, they certainly provide a service that's required by these people and we support them in that activity," Inspector Doyle said.

"It has been [a problem] for some time in the CBD with antisocial behaviour, but in recent times we've seen an increase out in the suburbs in some areas and we're taking action to address those outbreaks.

"We've seen quite a few people that are out sleeping rough.

"There's no doubt some of the people are homeless. We find that with some of the parks around town.

"We need to bear in mind that those people that are homeless aren't necessarily displaying antisocial behaviour or being involved in public nuisance offences, they're displaced from their homes for different reasons and we work with different community groups and partners to address those issues."

'Orange Sky's really proud'

Lucas Patchett, the co-founder of charity group Orange Sky, said he was "not too sure about the Mayor's comments" given the organisation had been "really welcomed into that community".

Orange Sky offers to wash and dry clothes for homeless people. ( 612 ABC Brisbane: Jessica Hinchliffe )

"We've found that by bringing the service to people, the first step of engagement can happen right then and there, and that can lead to so many other things, through that conversation, through that connection, into other service providers," he said.

"In the 18 months of being in Townsville, over 15,000 kilos of washing has happened, over 3,000 hours of conversation's taken place, even throughout the floods.

"So not too sure about the Mayor's comments, but what I know is Orange Sky's really proud of operating up in Townsville, in the parks, and in collaboration with all those other service providers."

Narayan Gopalkrishnan from James Cook University said homelessness was a problem of society "failing its own citizens" and disputed the notion of charities as enablers.

Dr Gopalkrishnan said his research had shown nobody chose to be homeless.

"These kinds of [charity] services are very simple and they just provide the basics," he said.

"Personally I do not see any reason why these services would be escalating the problem or causing people to stay on the streets."

But Cr Hill said antisocial behaviour was a growing problem in Townsville and that it would be would be high on her agenda when State Parliament was held in the city next week.

"I will be discussing this particularly with the Police Minister and some of the other ministers," she said.

"We're called upon more and more by community members to put more CCTV in because of the perceived risk."