Renewed focus on homelessness
Australia’s housing crisis has led to ever-greater numbers of people camping in your Park Lands, simply because they have nowhere else to go.
City Council by-laws provide that camping on "local government land" is prohibited without a permit. The maximum fine for a breach is $1,250 plus $50 per day for a continuing breach.
The Council also has powers to order people to move on, and even to confiscate possessions left on Park Lands. However the Council is cautious, or reluctant to issue fines or use potentially heavy-handed legal powers on people with little or no resources, so in recent years these rules have not been enforced.
Although tents can and do pop up almost anywhere in your Park Lands, there are two locations where rough sleepers have gathered, with the knowledge of Council staff.
One site is a small hilltop in Carriageway Park / Tuthangga (Park 17) near the corner of South Terrace and East Terrace. Tents on top of the mound are not in the view of passers-by so that the homeless people camped there have some sense of privacy.
The historic former site of what was a partially-buried water tank - now just a large raised mound in Carriageway Park / Tuthannga (Park 17) - in recent years a campsite for rough sleepers.
The other site is also out of the way - near the western end of Helen Mayo Park, out of sight from both the railway line, and the walkers and cyclists who use the River Torrens Linear path.
The rough sleepers have dubbed this area: “Camp H. Mayo”
ABC journalist Harvey Biggs interviewed some of the campers for an ABC news feature on Thursday 9 January 2025.
Read his report: “How building a community has been helping Mick to navigate the challenges of homelessness”
Related story:
Top pic: Mick and Hugh at “Camp Helen Mayo” - the ABC’s Guido Salazar