This council tried to end begging with donation boxes. They brought in $4 a day

3 months ago 17

New figures show West Australians have given about $4 a day to the City of Fremantle’s homeless population through its donation box scheme in just under 10 years.

The port city installed donation boxes in January 2016 to discourage begging in the city, intending to replace panhandling with “spare change collection points”.

The donation boxes in Fremantle are at a number of points throughout the city’s CBD.

Over the nine years of operation, the City of Fremantle said the boxes had raised about $14,327.

The donations have been matched by the city, bringing the total amount the program has raised to $28,654, and all money goes to local organisation St Patrick’s Community Support Centre.

Fremantle local Camelo Amalfi told Radio 6PR he was unsure the measures put in place by the council had made an impact on the city’s homeless population.

“It’s obviously symptomatic of lots of issues – the housing crisis, the cost of living, and the reduction of services to people who are having to do it tough,” he said.

“It’s just [hit me] and I’m thinking, ‘Well, hang on a minute’.

“Fremantle has set up collection boxes for people to put coin in, and we have a handful of services out there doing a great job every day – and I just wondered, well, if that’s the case, why is this now happening?”

Amalfi said locals had noticed more people were being forced to sleep rough on the streets of Fremantle.

The Australian Alliance to End Homelessness is currently attempting to quantify the number of homeless people in Fremantle, but said its data was incomplete.

As of May, the organisation estimated 84 people were sleeping rough in Fremantle. About 54 were temporarily sheltered.

An AAEH spokesperson said it was difficult to get information on the latest homelessness figures in Fremantle specifically.

“We are keen for there to be regularly and transparently reported data on how much homelessness there is in Fremantle just as we do in other communities in WA on the Western Australian Alliance to End Homelessness data dashboard,” he said.

St Patrick’s chief executive Michael Piu said the organisation had noted a marked increase in the amount of people seeking shelter and help over the last few months.

“[We’ve] has seen a sharp increase in the number of families with children experiencing homelessness,” he said.

“About a quarter of the people our frontline teams are supporting and 43 per cent of people accessing our emergency relief program are caring for children.

“This has also placed enormous pressure on the homelessness response system.”

Both Piu and AAEH said they were working to promote the “Fremantle Zero Project”, which aims to bring agencies together to make a “by-name” list.

“A by-name list is a comprehensive list of every person in a community experiencing homelessness, updated in real time,” the report on the project said.

“Using information collected and shared with their consent, each person on the list has a file that includes their name, homelessness history, health and housing needs

“Through by-name lists, communities can track how many people are experiencing homelessness over a month and whether that number is going up or down.”

The City of Fremantle was understood to be supportive of the measure, and was also taking steps to upgrade the donation boxes.

“The city is currently working on a project with St Pat’s to revitalise the collection boxes, with potentially an option to donate digitally,” a spokesperson said.

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