Birkirkara council’s law on loitering to remove homeless ‘nuisance’

Sleeping rough on public benches has been effectively criminalised in Malta’s second largest locality, after the council unanimously approved a by-law to stop people from sleeping inside its public gardens.

Lifting a lid on the wider social problem of homelessness, Birkirkara mayor Joanne Debono Grech defended the introduction of a by-law imposing a €65 fine on people “loitering” in the locality, as a way to dissuade people from sleeping in public gardens in the locality.

“The by-law was prompted by reports that people were sleeping in public gardens. Since the by-law was introduced last month we have stopped receiving these reports,” Debono Grech told MaltaToday.

She insisted that the by-law was not targeting anyone over their nationality but was aimed at keeping people from sleeping in public spaces.

The mayor claimed that the council received reports of people sleeping on benches in the Pjazza San Alwigi garden and other open spaces, like the ones recently created in the Qasab area, which are not closed at night as is the case with Gnien l-Istazzjon.

When initially proposing the by-law in September 2018 the mayor declared that the council should consider a by-law similar to the one introduced to “stop loitering and people lying about doing nothing in gardens.”

The by-law was approved unanimously by all council members.

Reports of people sleeping on the rough on benches is not a reflection of any dramatic increase in rooflessness, according to Caritas Director Anthony Gatt.

Caritas runs two homes in Birkirkara, the Dar Papa Frangisku and Dar Maria Dolores in partnership with government and the Alfred Mizzi Foundation, which together can accommodate 30 people. “We only refused people on four nights in 2018 because of lack of space.”

But according to the Caritas director, homelessness is increasing due to a variety of factors, including affordability and rising rents. “Unlike roofless people, homeless people find temporary shelter by relying on the support network of relatives or friends but still lack the security of home.”

As regards roofless people, the majority of women in this situation are Maltese (80%) while among men the majority (70%) are foreigners. “A particularly vulnerable category are immigrants from Italy who overstay their three-month permit to stay in Malta. Other vulnerable categories are victims of domestic abuse and people passing through marital separation,” Gatt said.

Gatt said rooflessness is also connected to other social problems like mental health and addictions. He referred to cases where Caritas collaborated with the authorities to provide accommodation to people apprehended by the police for being in breach of existing legislation dating back to British times, which criminalises living “a vagrant and idle life.”

“Very few people in Malta choose vagrancy as a lifestyle,” Gatt, who disagrees with legislation which criminalises people sleeping rough, said.

“While I understand that the authorities are concerned with public order, this is a social problem which is everybody’s problem. Criminalising these people does not improve their situation and risks increasing the stigma.”

Gatt acknowledged that in the past he received a few complaints about people offered shelter in the Caritas homes at night, who were spending their day in gardens. But in general there were no problems with neighbouring residents. Neither was he aware of a widespread problem of people sleeping on benches in the locality.

Birkirkara is now the third locality in Malta to criminalise loitering within the entirety of its boundaries, after Marsa and Hamrun. In these by-laws, loitering is defined as “the persistent presence of any person for no apparent reason.”

Anyone found loitering in any road in Birkirkara, is liable to a fine of €65 and to a further fine not exceeding €15 for every day during which one of the provisions of the by-law is breached.

Marsa was the first locality to introduce a law against loitering in June 2018. A similar by-law was approved by the Hamrun council in September.

Human rights organisation Aditus had criticised the introduction of these laws, which they said overlook underlying social problems like “social exclusion, poverty, unemployment, exploitation, mental health problems and disability issues”.

“Without addressing the root causes of vagrancy and loitering, we would be doing an injustice to people who need support,” director Neil Falzon told Maltatoday.

Falzon had called on the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality, the Office of the Ombudsman and the Ministry for Equality to assess the compatibility of anti-loitering by-laws with the Constitution and equality legislation”.

Anti-loitering laws in Malta and beyond

In 2006 Pietà became the first council to ban loitering in a specific area “in and around St Luke Square” in a move directed against drug addicts who used to hang around the area to collect their dose of methadone from a public health facility located in the same square.

The by-laws set a model for similar by-laws introduced in other localities by defining “loitering” as “the persistent presence of any person for no apparent reason”.

But the by-laws also excluded “persons who are carrying out a duty in St Luke Square, Pietà, or in the vicinity thereof”.

A by-law introduced in Ta’ Xbiex in 2007, this time aimed at clamping down on prostitution in the locality, used the same definition of loitering as that included in the Pietà legislation. The by-laws also excluded “persons who are carrying out a duty in the specific streets in Ta’ Xbiex”. The law singled out seven streets, which at the time were associated with prostitution.

Unlike Ta’ Xbiex and Pietà, the new by-laws for Marsa, Hamrun and Birkirkara are not limited to specific streets but apply to the whole locality. Hamrun mayor Christian Sammut had justified the by-laws by referring to the “fear” in his locality from foreign vagrants. “People are afraid… There are people begging, others get drunk and sleep in public spaces… and there have been fights”. While the law is aimed at both Maltese and foreigners, “the majority of these abuses are committed by foreigners,” Sammut had told MaltaToday after the by-law was introduced.

The Criminal Code states that it is illegal “in any public place for any person to beg alms.” By-laws introduced by local councils go a step further from laws which already criminalise vagrancy and begging in Malta.

Other European countries like Belgium, Finland and Sweden have removed anti-vagrancy laws from their statutes.