No rest for homeless sleeping in cars

Homelessness in Victoria has lead to a sharp increase in the number of people being forced to live in their cars. Despite the $72 million that the Victorian government recently committed to improving rooming house standards, many clients of the PILCH Homeless Persons' Legal Clinic prefer to sleep in cars as they feel that rooming houses are unsafe

Recently the Yarra Ranges Shire Council proposed a new by-law which would prohibit people from living in a caravan, vehicle, tent or similar structure without a permit. The HPLC and the Council to Homeless Persons (CHP) objected to this proposed by-law, as it would essentially criminalise homelessness in the shire.

The 2006 Census recorded 105,000 homeless people in Australia, including more than 500 homeless people in the Shire of Yarra Ranges. Of the 31 local government areas surveyed in Melbourne in 2000, the risk of homelessness for young people in the Yarra Ranges was recorded as the second highest on average.

In the HPLC/CHP submission, we drew the Council’s attention to the human rights implications of the proposed by-law. The Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 requires the Council, as a public authority, to consider human rights contained in the Charter when making proposed by-laws. According to Cr Samantha Dunn, the Yarra Ranges Council never intended the law to be applied in this way, but rather to deter campers at Lilydale Lake who were causing problems for locals who wished to use the park.

Councils should focus on addressing the causes and effect of homelessness in order to avoid penalising people who are in need. A more appropriate response to the situation would be to implement a policy assisting people who are homeless to access secure housing and other supports. This would ensure that the local laws and policies serve to help the people they seek to protect.
Councillors in the Shire of Yarra Ranges voted unanimously to defer the local law, and the law will come back to the Council by the end of March 2011 to be considered again. This will also give Council officers time to draft administrative guidelines and review the wording of the local law in order to minimise impact on people experiencing homelessness.

Hopefully a good outcome in this Shire will serve as an example to other municipalities for how to consider the effects of their by-laws relating to sleeping in cars on the homeless people in their region.

^{- Emma Heggie, PILCH intern}