The Otago Daily Times has seen several tents in the garages of the former bus depot, a sign the homeless population is moving on from places such as the Oval, although that is still well-populated.
The Dunedin City Council was in talks for several years with state-housing provider Kainga Ora about a possible sale of the Princes St bus depot building, but it dropped out of talks in 2024.
Since then, the building has remained unused.
Dunedin Night Shelter manager David Mackenzie said the bus depot could be a suitable place for homeless people as a temporary solution, but only if it had a proper police presence and proper protection or care of individuals to minimise any harm.
Some people had suggested opening up the bigger shed where buses used to be to allow more people to stay, he said.
‘‘Well, that might be a harm minimisation step because you're minimising those people being in other places that are worse.
‘‘But it's not a fix. It doesn't change anything and it's an extremely volatile environment at the moment, extremely.’’
As the fuel crisis deepened, the homelessness situation was affecting more demographics than ever before.
‘‘There is no simple answer to this because the systems that are feeding this affect all of us, whether we're well-off or not.
‘‘The issue of petrol — that’s something that affects both high and low incomes.’’
Success stories were in ‘‘one- or two-people groups’’ when working in this community sector, Mr Mackenzie said.
The situation is developing at a time when the government is proposing to introduce powers for police which would allow them to ‘‘move on’’ people from busy pedestrian areas.
A protest and letter-writing event against those extra powers against the homelessness took place in the Octagon in Dunedin yesterday.
Last week, Acting Senior Sergeant Iain Notman, of Dunedin, confirmed that police found ‘‘a sort of semi-homeless shelter set up in one of the garages behind the old bus station’’.
Officers had attended an incident there, he said.
Dunedin Tramways Union president Gary Bedford said the situation was a ‘‘real shame’’.
‘‘The [council] were trying to sell it for housing, but you can't because it's so polluted underground there.
‘‘You know, as I said, it's a bus depot. It's had years of oil and diesel and God knows what else underneath there.
‘‘That's entirely up to them to work out. But it should have been kept as a bus depot.’’
A council spokesperson said it was aware of the issue at the former bus depot and staff had been working with police and Catholic Social Services to support the people on site over the past couple of weeks.
‘‘We’re expecting the matter to be resolved in the next few days.’’
