The Auckland City Council wants to clean homeless people out of the city centre.

How could this be done… Perhaps they might provide a new homeless shelter in the city where rough sleepers can crash, get some soup, medical attention, assistance with getting back on their feet and integrated into society.

Maybe that’s a bit too much of a budget-stretcher. Maybe the council could just provide a place to sleep, and skip all the social service trimmings.

But no, even that would be too much, it seems. Councillor Paul Goldsmith wants cops or security guards to kick rough sleepers out of the CBD. Just move them along. Let them sleep under bridges in Newton, whatever, as long as they’re not down-grading our classy Aotea Square.

I see where Mr Goldsmith is coming from – I don’t feel great about the homeless hanging out on Queen Street either. But we can’t pretend that the problem can be solved by moving rough sleepers from one place to another. Why advocate aggression – which would be the inevitable result of tasking police with clearing out homeless people – without making a concerted effort to solve the problem?

Of course, there is no easy solution. The problem of homeless people is exacerbated by government under-funding of mental health services and drug and alcohol dependency. But building a proper shelter where homeless can get help would be a very good start.

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