Tent City Clean Up
Published in the Perth Voice, December 25, 2020 (online version has not been made available on the Voice website).
TENT CITY resident, Raymond Ward, says without rubbish disposal, sickness and violence has been on the rise in Tent City.
Over 1,000 people have been through Tent City since it was first established, and the piles of abandoned tents, broken glass, clothes and other materials, are becoming a hazard.
Concerned locals, politicians, environmentalists and advocates came together on Sunday to help him clear the rubbish away from the camp and move it into a pile next to Aberdeen Street.
“We've asked [the City of Perth] for a skip bin for months but they haven't delivered, and people deserve dignity, especially at Christmas, so we are taking out the trash ourselves,” Mr Ward said.
“If people have to sleep in tents this Christmas, at least they can do so with a little basic safety and sanitation”.
Helping out with the clean-up was North Metropolitan Greens MLA, Alison Xamon, who said, “the conditions of people staying in Tent City could not be described as living as much as just surviving”.
She said, “we have got people at risk of violence, many with disability, living with a variety of health, mental health and substance abuse issues”.
Mr Ward spends a lot of his time cleaning and organising the camp to try and make Tent City a safe and sanitary place to sleep, especially for women, who he said come to Tent City because it’s safer than being alone on the street.
“That’s how this area seemed to be to me – it seemed like a really safe area for women to come sit”.
He said regardless of women reporting that they’d experienced sexual violence in the camp, some women still thought Tent City was safer.
“Which is terrible,” he said.
Mr Ward was once allowed to throw away rubbish at two of the local day centres but said he’s been disheartened ever since the day they told him he couldn’t anymore.
“That’s when the violence started kicking in,” he said.
“I was told I couldn’t put my rubbish there, and that’s when the rubbish started building up… it sort of kicked in when the rubbish started piling up”.
“That’s when we started asking for a skip bin,” he said.
Mr Ward said, violence in the camp increases when there’s rubbish around, because it creates a dangerous environment that leads to dangerous behaviour.
He said, “a clear workspace creates a clear mind,” but if there’s rubbish stacking up, the rubbish itself, such as tent poles and glass bottles, can be used as weapons.
A woman visiting Tent City during the clean-up said, Tent City pet, Biscuit the dog, had helped keep the peace and broken up a few fights there before.
Mr Ward has been doing the best he can to clean up Tent City without rubbish removal, putting piles of rubbish in the ditches.
He said the rubbish makes people sick, and that one of his clean-ups made him so unwell, he was sick for three months afterwards, with boils all over his body.
While he was able to get anti-biotics from the Street Doctor, one of the boils has left behind a dark, swollen scar on his trachea.
“A skip bin would’ve made things a lot easier and there would have been less violence I think”.
The morning after the clean-up, the City of Perth arranged for the rubbish to be removed, following a request from the Department of Communities.
“The State Government finally committed some funds to assist the people living in Tent City, but not until months and months passed, and even then, not until they were effectively publicly shamed into it… They are removing the rubbish now but even then, not until scores of volunteers took it upon themselves to assist,” Ms Xamon said.
Perth City Mayor, Basil Zempilas, provided no comment when asked if this meant Tent City residents would get frequent rubbish removal in the future.
He also did not say whether or not Tent City will be given the skip bin they’ve been asking for.
“As long as Tent City is there, all levels of government should be bending over backwards to make sure these people are safe and that basic hygiene requirements are being met,” Ms Xamon, said.
“To not ensure this is a condemnation of both the City of Perth and the state government”.