Parking fines ‘unfair’ for homeless living in cars

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Montgomery Square parking regulations. Parking fines of $200 are 'not helping' the mental health of the homeless, Male Room manager Louis Chapman says.

Catherine Hubbard/Stuff

Montgomery Square parking regulations. Parking fines of $200 are ‘not helping’ the mental health of the homeless, Male Room manager Louis Chapman says.

People living in their cars are getting $200 fines for parking close to toilets, when they are just trying to avoid “having to go in the bush”, a Nelson advocate for the homeless says.

The Male Room manager Louis Chapman said local men who were living in their vehicles were “just moving around different parks copping fines that they were never going to be able to pay”.

People weren’t living in cars by choice, Chapman said, rather, they were facing “pretty dire” situations.

“Often people are pretty down in their luck living in a car in a car park, and a $200 fine isn’t going to help their mental health.”

Chapman said the men found it “quite unfair” that they were fined for locating themselves near a toilet that was open 24/7, rather than going in a bush, or in a place where other vehicles were alongside their own.

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Nelson City Council enforcement officers have noticed an increase in the number of vehicles breaching the Freedom Camping Bylaws – those parked in council car parks, who were not travellers or visitors to the region and “appeared to be living full-time in their cars”, said council acting group manager environmental management Dennis Bush-King.

Bush-King said the council’s community partnerships advisor had been alerted to the “growing” issue.

The community partnerships team kept in contact with social agencies and referred on details of those who were in need of assistance, he said.

“While officers do their best to apply discretion where possible in issuing infringement tickets, the Nelson City Freedom Camping Bylaw is clear that camping in non-self-contained vehicles is not permitted on any council administered land within the Nelson region, except for within an official campground or with a private accommodation provider.”

There was “an expectation from our community” that this bylaw was actively enforced, Bush-King said.

There was also “no easy fix” for Nelson’s housing crisis, and council was “working with community housing providers in the city to increase the amount of affordable housing available”.

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