Stay clean, don't be seen – that's the motto of many Auckland streeties who say they already get moved on by security guards, council workers and police.
By Amy Williams of RNZ
The Government is giving police new powers to move on rough sleepers or people displaying disorderly behaviour in town and city centres.
Shopkeepers and business leaders wanted it and social agencies condemned it, but homeless people warned it raised the question of where they were supposed to go.
Kevin lived rough for about a decade before moving into an apartment provided by a social agency in Auckland four years ago.
He described his experience like this: "Hustle – having unidentified struggle to live equally."
Kevin still knew many people who slept rough.
"Not all the ones want to take the cup and ask for money, some of them are just walking around town biding time looking for refuge or sanctuary of some kind, or looking for help."
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon earlier said police were capable of dealing with the issues and the orders would give police another tool to address anti-social behaviour.
But the Police Association said it would be a drain on resources.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell told Morning Report he disagreed with the association.
"In fact, to me, they're completely out of touch. They need to get out on the beat with their officers, because often, rough sleepers, police are having to deal with anyway," he said.
"They just haven't had the powers to be able to do anything. I know that when I was a young big constable in Auckland Central, police always worked with other agencies. They always try to find solutions.
"There's nothing different there. It's just quite simply, now we're giving them the powers to be able to take some action on something they haven't been able to do previously."
Police resources were continually tied up with rough sleepers where they didn't have the actual powers to do anything about it, Mitchell said.
He maintained his view that police were not mental health workers, but still often had an immediate response role in terms of being able to triage what support is needed by these people.
"You should not have two police constables sat in the Auckland Emergency Department for an entire shift looking after someone with a mental health issue.
"We need to have a mental health response and we're making very good steps in terms of that
"But in terms of the rough sleepers, no, police are not the lead agency on that, but they have the skills and the training and the powers to be able to deal with these people who often have mental health issues."
Breach an order, and it risked a fine or three month jail term.
Kevin said it should be the job of an agency already supporting rough sleepers.
"Why not another organisation because that uniform has a presentation, using that uniform and the police may not want to be doing this."
A woman who had been homeless for just over a year in Auckland, whom RNZ agreed to keep anonymous, said there were fewer areas in the central city to hang out in.
She went by the motto – stay clean, don't be seen.
"They have absolutely done everything in their power to move us away from the public areas, they've taken all the chairs, the tables, shut down the toilets so that we're concentrated in certain areas."
She said it was not easy getting off the streets because there was a lack of suitable housing – she preferred street life to boarding houses.
"We all recognise that we all have a lot of the same issues and we can't reintegrate back into society because we didn't fit there in the first place," she said.
"So now pushing us into certain areas, not being able to be here at a certain time, you can't lie down in Auckland city central business district at all."
Moving somewhere else would not be easy.
"The whole question in the beginning, where are we meant to go to? Where's the designated area?
"They can try and move us on but there's other ways around it, because we're still able to be here, we still have nowhere else to go."
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith's office said police were expected to connect people given move-on orders with the support they may need.
Newmarket Business Association supported the introduction of move-on orders, as long as the problem was not shifted from street to street. Chief executive Mark Knoff-Thomas said businesses did need help dealing with persistent anti-social behaviour outside their premises.
Kevin has a roof over his head now, but worried about those who did not, who could be asked to move on.
"They can't give you a home so you're going to take your trolley and move on, go somewhere else and move on, I think this is going to happen."
The changes proposed by Government would have to go through a legislative process before coming into effect.
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