Defecation, urination, abuse’: Auckland businesses say enough is enough

Tuesday, 7 October 2025

Central Auckland commercial property owner Josh Comrie has had enough of antisocial behaviour ‒ he’s sick of being verbally abused and his wife and her staff being confronted on their way to work.

“I've been called a c… on a number of occasions. You're a smart c…, you're a fancy c…. Look at you, you flash c…,” he said.

“My wife has had some guy expose himself to her and then urinated in front of her. She's been called all sorts of names, same with her team … And what else have I seen, defecation, urination, those sorts of things.”

His 17-year-old terrier was attacked last week by an off-lead dog belonging to one of the CBD’s transient residents.

“I'm just done with it.”

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He says the documented rise in homelessness is also affecting businesses ‒ but says the majority of those who are clearly rough sleeping because they have a number of possessions with them are not the ones causing the problems.

Comrie believes people are coming into the city to cause problems.

“They have clean clothes on and they have clean shoes on. The homeless people don't have these luxuries,” he said.

“They are catching the train in from a part of town that's not the city, and then camping up there for the day to do and or sell drugs, to drink, to beg, and inevitably get into fights and cause trouble.”

Often they appeared to be on hard drugs.

“You know, there's a look about those people. They have the crazy look in their eyes. They're missing teeth. They're ranting and raving. And you can't afford meth as a homeless person. I understand that to be a very expensive substance.”

The businessman is planning on writing to a number of ministers this week to officially raise his concerns with them and ask for more support.

In the past three months he’s seen an increase in undesirable behaviour.

Comrie’s public plea comes as Auckland CBD’s business association, Heart of the City, released survey results which showed 91% of operators said rough sleepers and begging were affecting their business.

It also found 81% believed the city centre was not in a good state to attract significantly more people and investment, and 72% said the police and Auckland Council weren’t doing enough to ensure existing laws and bylaws were being enforced.

Heart of the City chief executive Viv Beck said businesses wanted a crack-down on drug-taking, and more cleaning, maintenance and public toilets.

The issue, she said, was urgent in light of the upcoming cruise ship season and the City Rail Link and New Zealand International Convention Centre opening next year.

“What we’d really like to see is people in need get the help they need and so businesses have a really good environment to trade in for their customers, for our tourists.”

Ultimately it came down to people being housed and given access to the support they needed.

Beck and her other central city counterparts have been meeting with ministers about the problem to ask for a cross-agency solution led by the Government.

She believes they’ve recently had a breakthrough in those meetings, that ministers have accepted a cross-agency approach was the best option.

“What we're stressing is the urgency … it's already October and we think there are solutions that could be put in. We're certainly looking for an immediate crackdown on drugs and we'd like to see the local bylaws enforced as well.

“That's what the businesses are asking for but I think we just need to get the urgency so we see that action in time for a big year ahead.”