Perth Voice Interactive

PERTH city council staff have taken to confiscating signs from homeless people.

On Monday the Voice spotted three men, including a uniformed Perth council ranger, approaching a teenage girl holding a begging sign outside the central train station bookstore.

“This is the thanks I get,” a burly member of the trio said, leaning down to snatch the girl’s sign. After a short exchange they moved on, leaving her in tears.

The girl, who didn’t want to be identified, said it was a regular occurrence despite the fact she sits quietly out of the way.

Another young homeless woman who arrived to console her confirmed the account. They both claimed council staff had told them begging was illegal.

In 2014 the council asked the Barnett government to revive an old law banning begging but was rebuffed.

Council staff have the authority to confiscate handheld signs, but media staffer Michael Holland continued a months-long freeze on responding to Voice questions so we don’t know why they’d be claiming begging is illegal.

Conrad Liveris is a founder of the homeless advocacy group Street Smugglers and says council staff shouldn’t be telling vulnerable young people they’re breaking the law.

“In no way is begging illegal in Perth,” Mr Liveris said.

“Everyone has the right to public spaces and the city, and this extends to begging.

“The state government ruled out making begging illegal last year and I have been assured by the ministers that this will not be happening before the election.

“There are increased reports of homeless people and beggars being confused about the state of the law and whether begging is illegal”, he says, and they’re being misinformed by some authorities.

”This is a fear-based tool being used to move people on and keep people out of sight.”

by DAVID BELL