John Carey, WA's minister for homelessness and housing, has slammed a decision by the City of Perth to refuse an application to relocate a 63-year-old homeless drop-in centre 200 metres around the corner, saying the council has a "moral responsibility" to support such services.
Ruah Community Services recently applied to relocate its drop-in centre for homeless people on Shenton Street, Northbridge, after receiving funding to turn its existing building into a new facility for women and children escaping family and domestic violence.
The drop-in centre has operated its current site since 1959 and Ruah chief executive Debra Zanella said the organisation did an extensive search to find a new home in Northbridge, eventually landing on a building just 200 metres from the existing service.
But on Tuesday night the council at a City of Perth council meeting this week councillors voted unanimously to deny the application, with the Lord Mayor saying the CBD and Northbridge are already "disproportionately carrying the burden" of homelessness services.
The drop-in centre has operated on the site since 1959 and Ruah chief executive Debra Zanella said the organisation did an extensive search to find a new home in Northbridge, eventually landing on a building just 200 metres from the existing service.
"We searched for about 120 properties before we actually could find one that was appropriate and that someone wanted to lease to us," Ms Zanella told Nadia Mitsopoulos on ABC Radio Perth.
Council officers recommended the change of use be approved but, at a City of Perth council meeting this week, an alternative resolution to turn down the application was unanimously approved.
"I feel really gutted, actually," Ms Zanella said.
"I'm particularly disappointed because I was really proud of the work that the City of Perth had done in the safe night spaces and its proactivity in this particular space.
Ms Zanella said the service was only open from 8:30am until 2pm on weekdays and supported about 120 people a day.
"It provides immediate crisis support for people experiencing homelessness," she said.
"It helps them with housing applications, it helps them to obtain ID.
"It provides healthcare, it provides legal services … basic facilities to be able to have a shower, somewhere to store their mail.
In the staff report for council ahead of the meeting, officers noted that:
"Ruah's existing Community Centre is located 200m from the site and already contributes to the character of the setting. From a planning point of view, it may be difficult to defend a position that relocation of a use that is currently located 200m away, within a precinct that already accommodates a diversity of land uses, would unduly change or impact the character of the setting."
However, it also reported that word of mouth and publicity around the new location had led to 71 public submissions, with 64 raising objections and just four in support.
Minister calls on council to step up
"I'm deeply saddened by this decision," Mr Carey said.
"Everyone says they support homelessness services, they want more social housing, but they don't want it near them.
"The approach by the city is a hands-off approach. It's a cop out, they've just walked away, rejected it.
"I'm saying to the City of Perth, you have a moral responsibility, you are the planning authority, step forward, come into this difficult space and help navigate a path for Ruah.
A 'disproportionate burden'
Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas said the council was concerned that the bulk of Perth's homeless services were located within Northbridge and the CBD, and the relocation of the drop-in centre and the new women's and children's service amounted to an extra service in the city's boundaries.
"The reality is that the City of Perth is disproportionately carrying the burden, if you like, of the service providers," Mr Zempilas said.
"I think 90 per cent of service provision for the homelessness space occurs within the City of Perth.
Mr Zempilas said he recently addressed a state parliamentary homelessness inquiry and advocated not just for an increase in crisis accommodation and support for rough sleepers, but also decentralisation of services around the metropolitan area.
"It would have been hypocritical for me to say to a parliamentary inquiry that one of our action points is a decentralisation of the service providers, and then on the next Tuesday at a council meeting be arguing for an extra service provision to come into the City of Perth," he said.
Strong community feeling
Mr Zempilas also said the council could not ignore the high number of objections from ratepayers and residents in the city.
"The community who contacted the City of Perth and the councillors in very large numbers did not feel comfortable with this facility coming on to James Street, an area of the City of Perth and an area of our premium entertainment district where we are continuing to try to enhance and increase liveability," he said.
"There are many people who are residents in this area, many small business owners and operators and some landlords with rather large-scale development plans, who thought that this facility transferring onto James Street would be detrimental to their living, to some of those plans, and to general safety in the area.
Ms Zanella said she was unsure what Ruah's next move would be because staying at the existing site was not an option.
"We are developing a centre there for women and children escaping violence, another unmet need. Both are really critical services," she said.
"It leaves me looking at all the avenues that I need to pursue, including going back to the City of Perth and saying: 'Where else in the city would you like us to go? And how can you help us get there?'"
Ms Zanella said removing the service would likely not move homeless people away from the area.
"There's no evidence to suggest that is true," she said.
"I would suspect that some of the issues that they are incredibly concerned about, and that cause people to object and vote against this particular application, will only increase tenfold as a result of us not being able to provide services."
Mr Carey agreed.
"Go to any city around the world, whether there is minimal homeless services or there are a large number of homelessness services, you get rough sleepers," he said.
"Why? Because rough sleepers will seek out activity, they will seek out safety and safety comes where there are people in numbers.
"This idea that our city is overrun, or that it has an excessive amount of homelessness facilities, is absolutely wrong."
Editor's Note 2/06/2022: This story has been updated to include comments from John Carey, WA's minister for homelessness and housing.
