Brisbane City Council has cut the electricity to two homeless tent cities, leaving them without power outlets or public barbecues to cook food.
Council workers cut power at Kurilpa Point Park and Musgrave Park, citing anti-social behaviour and safety concerns.
Wires to the barbecue and power outlets were cut. (Supplied: Margarita Aunei-Stowers)
Photos supplied to the ABC show the council has cut wires to the public barbecues, rendering them permanently unusable.
The council has also disabled the power board which homeless people had been using to charge their phones and other devices.
Homeless man Ruan Kruger said he used to rely on the Musgrave Park barbecue to cook a hot meal for himself.
The 27-year-old said that was no longer an option.
“People have it tough already being out on the street and the last thing they need is the little amount of resources they have to be taken away,” Mr Kruger said.
“I think it’s really not cool to put people through even more gruelling conditions than they need to be in.”
Homeless people used to cook hot food on the Musgrave Park barbecues. (ABC Radio Brisbane: Kenji Sato)
Mr Kruger said any of the meat that had been donated would likely end up as waste.
He said he felt as though Brisbane City Council was trying to push homeless people such as him away from Musgrave Park.
Brisbane City Council city standards chairwoman Sarah Hutton said the power was shut off to maintain community safety.
“We’re genuinely concerned about the serious escalation of violence and anti-social behaviour in these encampments, including alleged stabbings, fires and vandalism of electric barbecues, and have switched off the power for safety reasons,” Councillor Hutton said.
Homeless left in the dark
Margarita Aunei-Stowers says the lack of light makes homeless people feel unsafe. (ABC Radio Brisbane: Kenji Sato)
Margarita Aunei-Stowers used to cook food for homeless people using the barbecues at Kurilpa Point Park.
Ms Aunei-Stowers is the founder of Giv3 Our Time, a charity run by homeless people who cook hot meals for other homeless people around south-east Queensland.
The formerly homeless woman said her organisation had to bring food in containers because the power had been cut off to the barbecue.
The council did not say if it would fix the Kurilpa Point barbecues. (Supplied: Margarita Aunei-Stowers)
She said members also had to bring their own torches because the light poles had not worked for months, leaving the homeless in darkness.
Ms Aunei-Stowers said she was shocked that Brisbane City Council was treating the homeless people in this way.
“Haven’t these people suffered enough,” Ms Aunei-Stowers said.
“I sincerely hope Brisbane City Council recognises the urgency of this issue and takes action to support those in need.”
Brisbane City Council would not answer the ABC’s questions about whether it would return power to the homeless camps.
A council spokesperson said the damaged lights were not related to the electricity being switched off to the barbecue power board.
“The lights you refer to, along with other council facilities in these parks, continue to be vandalised and are fixed by our officers, whenever it’s safe to do so,” they said.
