Life on the street: homeless man opens up about the daily struggle of finding a bed

Looking for a power point, protecting his seven bags of belongings, and hours spent on the phone searching for a bed. This is what life is like experiencing homelessness in Coburg North.

Jonathan McKinnon with all his belongings on the spot he slept in Coburg North.

Jonathan McKinnon rolled out his swag on the concrete in front of the Salvation Army building in Coburg North on July 1 and prepared to sleep.

A tiler by trade, Mr McKinnon moved from Perth to Melbourne about three months ago, after he broke up with his partner, and has been sleeping rough ever since.

He spent stints in shared accommodation, squatting in North Melbourne and on the streets until he moved into Sydney Rd’s StayInn Motel.

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But when the StayInn shut for renovations a week later, Mr McKinnon and his seven bags of belongings — full of clothes he keeps in case he can land a job — were back on the street.

A desperate Mr McKinnon told the Leader he spent most of that day on the phone, trying to find a bed and a roof to sleep under that night, but was unsuccessful.

“I’ve tried every possible angle and avenue that you do when you’re in this situation but no one has been able to even give me one bit of information,” he said.

“The worst situation that is going on in my whole life and not one person can help.”

StayInn manager Phil Alexander said the motel, which offered beds to homeless services, was shutting ahead of a rebuild.

The StayInn Motel in Coburg North is undergoing a rebuild.

He said Melbourne didn’t have enough long-term options for people experiencing homelessness.

“Melbourne is good at hiding it and having a very nice front, but behind it there is a lot of homelessness around,” Mr Alexander said.

The Council to Homeless Persons chief executive Jenny Smith said there were about 80,000 people on the waiting list for social housing in Melbourne and the average wait for community public housing was over 10 months.

Jenny Smith said the system needs to change. Picture: Josie Hayden

“The crisis accommodation in Melbourne is under extreme pressure, because to exit requires a home to go to, and that is what we are missing,” she said.

“Just creating more crisis options doesn’t tackle the bottleneck in the system, and people who could move on from emergency accommodation into permanent housing have nowhere else to go.”

Ms Smith said an extra 3000 units of social housing needed to be created in Victoria every year.

Hope Street Youth and Family Services chief executive Donna Bennett said it was not unusual for a person who was experiencing homelessness to be out of options when searching for a crisis bed.

Donna Bennett from Hope Street.

“Across Victoria there are only 423 crisis beds available to people experiencing homelessness, but there are close to 25,000 Victorians who are homeless on any given night,” she said.

“Every day in Victoria, 99 people are turned away from homelessness services due to a lack of housing and resources.

“It is critical that accommodation and housing options are available in all geographical areas to enable people to stay and build their life in and with their local community as an approach to preventing people from entering into a cycle of homelessness.”

For Mr McKinnon, the daily struggle to find housing was compounded by his efforts to find a place to charge his phone and keep his belongings safe.

After two nights of sleeping in the cold, he was joined in Melbourne by his ex-partner and the pair secured an eight-day stay in temporary housing in Jacana through Glenroy’s Vincent Care.

He said he would spend the stay searching for permanent accommodation and work.

Mr McKinnon said the government needed to ask people who had experienced homelessness their opinion on how to improve the system.

“Melbourne needs to have a good look at itself,” he said.

“I just want a roof over my head, then I’ll be happy.

“I try and do a good deed each day to try and help my karma out, hopefully all that good comes back to me soon.”

@Josh__Barnes