Perth City Council has moved to outlaw begging in the city in a bid to tackle people being aggressively targeted for money.

Last night the council voted to apply to the State Government to reintroduce a law to make begging an offence.

Councillors also want to convene a meeting of social welfare agencies to introduce what they call a "diversionary program" to address issues that lead to people being on the streets.

Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi told ABC 720 Perth there had been a big increase in the number of beggars, many of whom have been taking an increasingly aggressive approach.

"I've observed first hand an old lady aged about 80-85 who was harassed for 40 paces by a person hammering at her to give her money," she said.

"The City of Perth has a duty of care, a wide-ranging duty of care ... but very importantly to the rangers who are increasingly meeting with significant levels of aggression from many of the beggars."

Ms Scaffidi said some of the beggars were not genuinely in need of money for food and shelter.

"My guess is, a lot of people aren't taking in a lot of the detail of the beggars; as closely as the City of Perth has in recent times," she said.

"There are certain cases in our city... where they are begging to make money. We get these stories reported to us, I'm not making it up."

Ms Scaffidi said neither the council or the police have the power to prevent begging unless the beggar displays anti-social behaviour.

Reece Harley was the only councillor to vote against the proposal last night.

He told council he did not support the motion because he was not convinced that making begging an offence would reduce its occurrence.

Cr Harley said the motion carried by the council did not have any funding attached to it and it did not commit the city to anything more than continuing to liaise with stakeholders.

"What we actually need is to proactively coordinate services, to employ assertive outreach workers to deal with individuals in a case management approach," he said.

"We have no staff at all do this street work. Putting people in the justice system is unlikely to have positive results."

Salvos say begging linked to poverty

Salvation Army spokesman Chris Halliday said the organisation recently conducted research to try and establish who the people begging on the streets were and why they did it.

"What we found was almost all the people we spoke to who were begging over this period had a need related to poverty," he said.

"What we are finding is the resources just aren't there to meet the needs of these people long term.

"Thirty per cent of the people we spoke to said accommodation is their primary need."

The Lord Mayor said the council had arranged a meeting with Police Minister Liza Harvey on May 1 when it would raise the matter and "draw her attention [to] the issues the city is currently experiencing".

Begging is illegal in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Queensland, but WA's anti-begging laws were repealed in 2004 following a recommendation from the Law Reform Commission.