‘Balance, not ideology’: Tagg urges leaders to confront homelessness realities

Pictured: Safety advocate Helen Tagg has tapped into a groundswell of concern and encouraged residents to speak openly about safety.

Backed by more than 1500 signatures and a private Facebook group of more than 1000 members, Helen Tagg has tapped into a groundswell of concern and encouraged residents to speak openly about safety. She told the Gazette the momentum reflected concerns long held but rarely voiced, and said the time had come for an honest, balanced approach to public safety and homelessness.

While safety advocate Helen Tagg has undoubtedly strong community support, some critics have claimed that her call for safe boundaries around schools and playgrounds was an attempt to exclude all homeless people. 

Mrs Tagg rejects this and said her position was based solely on safeguarding children and young people and not on targeting vulnerable individuals. “I honestly think it is bizarre that wanting to keep kids safe is considered extreme in 2025,” she said.

She said parks and school zones required appropriate separation from rough sleeping sites because children and young people needed environments that were predictable, supervised and free from high-risk behaviour.

“It is common sense. I have been a teenage girl, a youth worker and a mum. I understand the threats children and young people face daily and need protection from. I am not removed from reality,” she said.

Mrs Tagg said her views were also shaped by lived experience. “I have been homeless. I have had family members living in tents. My sister is a single mum with two kids who slept by a creek.”

Still she said she shouldn’t have to list her personal history to justify what she saw as basic common sense. “Anyone who rejects safe areas for children and young people should examine their moral conscience,” she said.

She said her experience was not isolated but reflected a broader community sentiment that had been ignored for far too long. Mrs Tagg said that during her investigation into homelessness it became clear that the lack of progress in previous years was influenced by political and social dynamics. She said people naturally sought belonging and it could feel confronting and intimidating to challenge a dominant narrative. 

“In an increasingly virtual world many people absorb their cues from online politics, which has been shaped more by extremists, virtue signalling and bullies than by the views of everyday residents.”

People speaking up

She said one noticeable change since launching the petition was that people were no longer being intimidated for stating facts. She said residents were now more willing to speak openly without fear of being targeted. “The truth offends our feelings and our bias sometimes, and that is something we just need to get over,” she said.

Mrs Tagg rejected the idea that the safety of children and young people and support for people experiencing homelessness were in conflict. She said responsible policy must be built on balancing needs, not denying one group to protect the other. “Bad policy comes from ideology that shuts out truth. Good policy comes from measuring facts and balancing needs,” she said.

She said too many leaders bowed to cultural pressures instead of standing firm, leaving communities unprotected. She said leaders who followed fear or ideology that overshadowed facts became ineffective. “I hope renewed public momentum will push more leaders to step up and lead or step down.”

Mrs Tagg said people experiencing homelessness would be better supported if the community felt able to speak honestly. “You are allowed to find homelessness confronting, because it is. You are allowed to worry about the health risks. They are real,” she said. She said you are also allowed to speak about the risks people sleeping rough are exposed to. “You are allowed to recognise that people sleeping rough face higher exposure to mental health challenges and environments where offending, drugs and addiction are present. This does not define every homeless person, but it is part of the reality we must address.”

‘Change beyond bandaids’

She said that the discomfort toward homelessness was natural. “If homelessness is confronting for you, good. It means you are human. We should be so confronted that it compels us to change. I want to see real change. That is only going to happen on a policy and legislative level. And if idealogues dominate and influence this space, we will only see bandaid solutions and imbalance. I want this faced head on, not swept under the rug, and I want change that goes beyond bandaid solutions.”

Mrs Tagg said genuine change only happened when discomfort led to action. She said feeling sorry for people does nothing to improve their circumstances. “Compassion that never moves beyond a feeling achieves nothing. Our community has an opportunity right now to influence policy and make a measurable difference. Why on earth would we not go for it,” she said.

She said she does not believe homelessness will ever be fully eradicated, but that does not mean communities should accept unsafe, unmanaged or degrading conditions as the standard. “We can do better than letting people live in danger. We should expect more and work for more,” she said.