Phil Barton has defended Wagga Council’s action on Wilks Park and taken aim at a recent Region article. Photo: WikiCamps.
I write to express my considerable disappointment at the article, “Double the fun: Burkinshaw’s brutal parody of Wagga’s homelessness crackdown”, published in Region Riverina on 7 September.
I found the portrayal of Wagga Wagga City Council’s actions at Wilks Park unfair and, frankly, insulting to those who have actually been involved in trying to deal with the extremely complex issue of homelessness in our community.
I speak from first-hand experience.
During the prolonged wet period of 2022, I became closely involved with people living at Wilks Park. I spent considerable time there attempting to understand their circumstances and assisting where I could. My involvement ultimately led me to document those daily experiences in an “unpublished” booklet, Wilks Park – the story of the forgotten in society. I meticulously documented my involvement to protect my lawful interests should my actions later be called into question.
That experience taught me something very important: homelessness is far more complicated than simply providing someone with a house.
There are people who become homeless through circumstances largely beyond their control and who desperately need and deserve our compassion and assistance. But there are also people with complex behavioural, social and personal problems.
Some reject assistance when it is offered. Some have difficulty complying with reasonable rules, and some are simply not ready or suitable to become tenants in somebody else’s property without substantial ongoing support.
I witnessed these complexities personally. My involvement at Wilks Park included situations in which I felt my own personal safety was at risk.
That is why I take exception to the suggestion that council’s actions can simply be characterised as putting “amenity before humanity”.
Council has responsibilities to everyone.
Wilks Park is public land. Council has responsibilities for public health, sanitation, safety, environmental protection and ensuring that public facilities remain available to the entire community. Expecting people occupying a free public camping area to observe reasonable conditions is not, in itself, an absence of humanity.
Phil Barton says homelessness is a complex issue that should not be reduced to slogans.
Nor is requiring overstayers to move on necessarily a “homelessness crackdown”.
The suggestion that council simply wants homeless people removed from sight might make effective satire, but it does very little to advance a serious discussion about homelessness.
I have considerable sympathy for people genuinely experiencing homelessness. My actions in 2022 demonstrated that. But compassion cannot mean abandoning reasonable standards of behaviour, cleanliness, public safety and personal responsibility.
We also need to acknowledge an uncomfortable reality: placing every homeless person into a private rental property is not necessarily a solution. Without appropriate support, some people are simply unable to sustain a tenancy. That can result in property damage, neighbourhood problems, failed tenancies and the individual ultimately returning to homelessness.
Those realities should not be ignored because they make the story less convenient.
There is certainly a shortage of affordable housing, and governments at all levels need to address it. But housing availability is only one part of homelessness. Mental health, addiction, family breakdown, unemployment, financial hardship, trauma and behavioural issues can all contribute, and each requires different forms of assistance.
I therefore strongly reject the implication that Wagga Wagga City Council somehow lacks humanity because it seeks to properly manage Wilks Park.
Council was placed in the difficult position of balancing compassion for vulnerable people with its legal and community responsibilities for a public reserve. In my view, it was entitled – and indeed obliged – to act.
Homelessness deserves serious discussion and serious solutions.
It deserves better than ridicule and parody.
