The council last night voted to direct Haese to contact the Government on the issue, as it confirmed its support for another 12-month extension to the controversial parklands dry zone.

Joyce van der Sman, of the Independent Community-Wide Homelessness Administrators Group (ICHAG), told the meeting: “We have lost 300 boarding house beds in the city in the past 10 years.”

ICHAG represents several Adelaide city homelessness services.

Van der Sman was among four advocates for the homeless who presented to the council meeting, urging it not to ask the State Government for the extension.

She argued the dry zone, which prohibits the consumption of alcohol across the parklands from 8pm to 11am the following day, had “led to a lot of antagonism and lack of cooperation on the ground”, and contributed to social isolation among homeless people and Aboriginal people suffering addiction and mental illness.

Deputy Lord Mayor Megan Hender said the council took the advice of van der Sman and other advocates “very seriously” and did not want to be seen to be dismissing it.

But she said the council had to follow the advice of its Senior Officers Group – made up of representatives from various State Government agencies, SA Police and social services – which had recommended the council extend the dry zone for another year as a transitional arrangement while other strategies took effect.

“It’s not an easy decision,” said Hender.

“[But] we want to limit the amount of time that you can drink in our parklands.”

“We are trying to apply resources to this cause.”

She said that since the implementation of the parklands dry zone – which prohibits alcohol consumption across the parklands from 8pm until 11am the next morning – “over 50 people have been diverted into [drug and alcohol rehabilitation] treatment”.

Hender said the dry zone had, for the first time, brought government, council and social service representatives together to develop strategies to improve the lot of vulnerable people using the parklands.

But she conceded the number of visibly homeless people on Adelaide’s streets had noticeably increased in recent years, and that the issue “brings shame to us all”.

Haese told InDaily this morning: “How we look after those people most in need is the hallmark of a decent and caring society.”

He said the council was “engaging with the State Government and many service providers to play a role in addressing the needs of rough-sleepers on our city streets”.

Van der Sman told InDaily this morning the 300 beds figure was from the closure about 240 private boarding house beds and another 60 “Housing Trust properties going to other services which have more restrictive eligibility criteria”.

She said there were not enough “crisis beds” with accessible eligibility criteria to meet current demand in the city.

However, a spokesperson for the Department of Communities and Social Inclusion told InDaily this morning that the State Government had significantly increased its response to homelessness in recent years.

“Specialist homelessness services provide over 1200 accommodation options in the state, including crisis and medium-term accommodation,” the spokesperson said.

“Services in the inner city area include emergency accommodation, meals and other material assistance, counselling and assertive outreach.

“In the inner city area, more than 250 beds are available for crisis, transitional and boarding house accommodation for people who are homeless.”

Anyone requiring further information about homelessness services should contact the 24-hour Homelessness Gateway on 1800 003 308.