Squatters who have built flimsy shelters next to a public park in Plumstead are lighting fires, disturbing the peace and using the area as a toilet, say residents.
They voiced their concerns about the camp near Burnham Park, at a public meeting, organised by ward councillor Eddie Andrews, at the Alphen Centre, on Thursday February 9.
The residents said they were disturbed by radios blasting late at night as well as screaming and shouting from the camp that has sprung up outside a fence that encloses Burnham Park. They said they suspected a gang member was being harboured in the camp and that drug dealing and prostitution were happening there.
Mayoral committee member for community services and health Patricia van der Ross told the Bulletin her department knew of seven people currently staying in three shelters next to the park. However, she added that from the beginning of November to the end of January, City field workers had met 18 times with nine people at the park to offer them help, but all offers had been refused.
“We cannot force people to accept the assistance offered, but our staff will continue to engage them,” she said.
Mr Andrews said the City had to follow due process before it could seek court orders to evict people occupying public land. That included being able to show to the courts that the City had done all it could to offer the squatters alternative accommodation and other assistance.
“We also have to wait on the court for a date when this would be heard. It is not a priority for the courts. There are massive backlogs that one can appreciate since Covid, and we wait.”
He advised residents to create a Friends group of volunteers to assist in locking and unlocking the gate to the park.
A fence, with two gates, surrounds Burnham Park. The gate on Gray Road remains locked, but the Burnham Road gate is unlocked at opening times and locked at closing times by a caretaker.
“We just need to get an idea of who the key keeper will be for us then to connect you with our parks department and so we can get the keys and formally enter an agreement between yourselves as residents and the parks department,” Mr Andrews said.
Sandra Hazell, the body corporate chairwoman of the Plumburne Place flats in Burnham Road, said nobody in the complex felt comfortable with opening and closing the park as they feared intimidation from the squatters. The trustees, however, had agreed to pay a security company to do the job.
“Even the security company was not happy to open and close that gate. While those vagrants are there, they feel these people will be antagonistic towards anybody who approaches that gate or comes there or whatever because it has happened in the past,” Ms Hazell said.
The complex’s gate in Gray Road could not be used because vagrants sat outside it, she said.
Should the City push out the park’s fence on Gray Road to include the verge, Plumburne Place would be prepared to maintain the verge, she said.
Mr Andrews said that was not an unreasonable request and one the council would likely review for consideration.
Adelaide Road resident Nikki Duncan said a new group of people who had moved next to the park had homes to go to, but because they were drug addicts, they had been kicked out.
She said she had tried to help a woman who had been living in the camp for a while to get an ID.
“I have personally taken her to go pay for an ID to be done. She is only looking for a job.”
Some residents called for entry to the park from Gray Road to remain fenced off and closed and for more police patrols in the Burnham Park area.
Diep River police station’s Captain Marius Voges said the camp was not a crime hot spot.
“Crime around the area where homeless people sleep hasn’t really increased. The closest crime concern, where there has been a spike in crime, is theft out of motor vehicles in the parking areas at Checkers and around the area of Pirates at night, but no connection with the homeless has been made. An arrest for possession of drugs was made last year. However, the suspect no longer stays there,” he said.
