People sleeping rough in Melbourne's CBD are pretending to be homeless so they can "shake down" tourists for money, according to Victoria's police chief.
In a surprising reversal of Victoria Police's previous softer stance on the issue, Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton described homeless encampments outside Flinders Street Station as "disgusting" and a "very ugly sight", and said the people living there were trying to exploit extra visitors coming to Melbourne for the Australian Open.
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Top cop calls CBD homeless camps 'disgusting'
People sleeping rough in Melbourne's CBD are pretending to be homeless so they can "shake down" tourists for money, according to Victoria's police chief. Vision courtesy Seven News Melbourne.
He said undercover and uniformed police would begin targeting people begging in Melbourne from Thursday.
"These people are not homeless, these are people that are choosing to camp . . . because people are visiting the city at this time of year and there's more people to shake down for money," he said.
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"There's no reason people should be sleeping on the street, there are no reasons people should be homeless.
"There's more than enough beds and accommodation for people to access."
Mr Ashton said police were powerless to move the rough sleepers and called for by-laws that banned camping in the CBD.
"We've been meeting with the city council about what extra by-laws we can get, because I think it looks disgusting what you see in the city," he said.
He defended accusations police were doing nothing, saying officers could not enforce laws that don't exist.
However, Mr Ashton's comments came in stark contrast to the view expressed only 24 hours earlier by Victoria Police Superintendent David Clayton.
Superintendent Clayton rebuffed suggestions that police should use move-on powers to disperse the homeless camps, saying those laws were used for problems around night-clubs and protests, not for homeless people.
"It's not an offence to be homeless," he said.
"It's not a very good look what's going on there on Flinders Street, but it's not an offence to sit or sleep on the street."
On Wednesday, Melbourne lord mayor Robert Doyle said he was not convinced that council officers or the police needed any further powers to force homeless people to move away from high-traffic areas.
It would not fix the problem, he said, but instead shift homeless people to other parts of the CBD.
"There are cities around the world where they simply bundle homeless people up and ship them out," Cr Doyle said.
"I'd hate to think that we were ever that sort of city. We need to address the problem, not just do a cosmetic clean-up."
He reiterated that message on Thursday, in response to Mr Ashton's comments.
"The more important thing is to connect people to services," he said.
"I don't necessarily think a move on power is going to do that, remember we're trying to help people.
"There's no easy answer, it's very complex but I don't think the answer is to demonise people and I don't think the answer is to just move people out of sight, it's to actually engage and try to deal with the problem."
Cr Doyle said if people were forced away from the station they would only move to other rough sleeping hot-spots such as Enterprize Park, Treasury Gardens and City Square.
"These camps keep moving and what we have to do is keep up that activity to clean them up after police play their role and look to the State Government for long-term housing solutions," he said.
"We're all in it together but we've got to co-ordinate those efforts so that were actually having an effect and making a difference to those people who are vulnerable."
Speaking alongside Mr Ashton on Thursday, Police Minister Lisa Neville said the Flinders Street camp was illustrative of Melbourne's "serious homeless problem" but that it wasn't illegal to sleep rough.
"Homelessness is not a crime in this state," she said.
Ms Neville said moving the rough sleepers on Flinders Street to another location would not solve the homeless problem.
She said for any by-laws banning camping in the CBD to work, they would need to be complemented by services linking people with housing and treatment.
Ms Neville said the situation was "confronting in number of ways", including a sense the camp was "a bit out of control".
"It's confronting because there are large numbers of people that congregate there that cause … fear," she said.
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