A regional Victorian council is being threatened with Supreme Court action if it attempts to evict campers from one of its reserves for a second time.
Tim Ferrari is one of a number of campers that stayed put when the City of Greater Bendigo unsuccessfully attempted to evict residents in September last year.
That eviction attempt failed when a community legal group stepped in and threatened the council with legal action, stating it would breach human rights laws.
Mr Ferrari said he was now facing a second attempted eviction from the reserve, but that council was "kidding itself" thinking people could be evicted amid a cost-of-living crisis.
"With everything going up in price, hello, we're not going to be the only ones out there that are going to be homeless," he said.
"There are going to be many, many more. And I said to the City of Greater Bendigo 'you think it's bad now? Just watch his space, it's going to get worse'."
Council facing legal threat a second time
The City of Greater Bendigo has issued notices to campers at Huntly Lions Park near Bendigo to move on from the site by March 17.
Advocacy group ARC Justice is threatening to take the council to the Supreme Court to get an injunction on the eviction notices, as it claims their enforcement could be a breach of human rights laws.
"If the council is going to act on that enforcement notice and remove people, again, without assessing the impact on those individuals, then again the council might be in breach of the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act," said its chief executive Damian Stock.
On Tuesday night this week there were ten campers at the reserve before dwindling to about six by Wednesday afternoon.
"There's a mixture of people who are long-term campers experiencing homelessness who have no other options, and there are some other people that are just passing through," Mr Stock said.
"It was brought to our attention a couple of weeks ago that the council had issued another enforcement notice to all remaining campers, saying that they had four weeks to leave."
'I'll make a last-minute decision'
Mr Ferrari is one of the campers living at the park and saw out the first attempt to have campers evicted.
He was born and bred in Bendigo and moved back from New South Wales, but has found work intermittently.
"I'm still in limbo with what I'm actually going to do. I'll leave it to the 12th hour," he said.
"I'm waiting on personal circumstance and whatnot, what outcomes. But more than likely I'll probably be sleeping in a tent elsewhere."
Mr Ferrari said the past year had been traumatic, fearing for his safety as well as dealing with an impending eviction.
"I would have expected the council to move everyone on a lot earlier. But the cold hard reality is you're sleeping with one eye open sort of thing," he said.
The council said it was still working with Haven Home Safe to find campers another place to live.
"When campers do leave the site the City of Greater Bendigo will be making changes to ensure it is accessible and welcoming for broader community recreation purposes," said its director of Healthy Communities and Environments, Stacy Williams.
Mr Ferrari wants governments to look at building a village similar to those constructed for those over-55 for people who are homeless.
In a statement, the council said the Victorian Government approved its application to change the status of the park and remove the option to camp.
