How Melbourne’s homeless live on the streets
Welfare services in the CBD are being stretched as hundreds of homeless and other vulnerable people stream into the city for shelter and food. Here’s a look at how the city’s rough sleepers get by.
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Welfare services in the CBD are being stretched as the homeless and other vulnerable people stream into the city for shelter and food.
Up to 200 people a night are staying at the Salvation Army’s Night Cafe, while the charity’s youth street teams have their hands full looking after revellers facing trouble late on weekends.
City of Melbourne currently provides $400,000 a year for the cafe and street teams, but the funding is not assured beyond June 2019.
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The Salvos also need help to renovate a three-storey building behind their Bourke St headquarters to create one-bedroom units for crisis accommodation and intensive support services.
Salvos City of Melbourne commanding officer Major Brendan Nottle said the Night Cafe accommodated most of the 210 rough sleepers that were identified in the latest Melbourne Street Count.
“The cafe has been attended 53,440 times over the last two years. We serve 7500 meals a month in the Night Cafe alone,” he said.
“We are keen to see that program continue, we certainly don’t see it as a solution to homelessness.”
“But it helps keep people safe, and it also helps keep the city safe because it gives people somewhere to go where they receive the support they desperately need.”
The street teams, in partnership with Victoria Police, have been credited with helping to reduce crime in the inner city in recent years.
Mainly run by volunteers, they patrol the streets to offer support and comfort for anyone who needs it.
Maj Nottle said that just last week a 14-year-old drunk girl was driven home to country Victoria by the teams with police help.
“Street teams cares for young people who come in from the suburbs, who come in for a good night out in the city and sometimes over do it,” he said.
“It helps prevent them from becoming victims, but what it also does is it frees up police resources to enable them to focus on law and order issues.”
Monash University paramedic students are currently helping the teams, and an African youth worker will be recruited to bolster capabilities.
The Salvos also run a so-called concierge program at Bourke St, which involves former homeless people supervising the arrival and departure of rough sleepers at the cafe.
The proposed new housing facility, called Westwood Place, will comprise 21 units offering crisis accommodation for 21 days.
A key feature will involve St Vincent’s Hospital releasing patients from its emergency departments to Westwood, where they will receive intensive health and welfare support before transitioning to more permanent housing, such as through the Magpie Nest program sponsored by Collingwood Football Club.
Maj Nottle said talks were underway with the private sector to refurbish the space, but it will cost at least $1 million a year to provide the complex services needed.
“It will start with Westwood Place but then they’ll have guaranteed long-term housing,” he said.
“We want to put in all the supports for people there that helps address the drivers of their homelessness.”
Sen Sgt John Travaglini, from Melbourne East Police Station, said police had a strong and close working relationship with the Salvation Army through initiatives like Night Cafe, concierge program and community hub.
“They not only benefit our wonderful city, but also create targeted opportunities encouraging and enhancing social inclusion with Melbourne’s rough sleeper community, and provide a real sense of hope for disadvantaged people in the city,” he said.
MINISTER MEETS HOMELESS
It’s a Wednesday evening and the Salvation Army’s Night Cafe in Bourke St is buzzing.
More than 100 people are crammed into the room — most are eating and drinking coffee or tea, but a few are enthusiastically playing table tennis in the middle of it all.
This is home for inner Melbourne’s rough sleepers, and tonight there is a special visitor, federal Assistant Minister for Social Services, Housing and Disability Services, Sarah Henderson.
She wanted to see how charities care for the homeless and disadvantaged, especially as the federal government provides the states with major funding.
As she tours the cafe, a woman in a dark coat bounces up and starts talking excitedly, her hands clasped as she engages Ms Henderson. Before long, the woman is on her knees as staff look on.
Speaking later, Ms Henderson said there were some emotional moments as she met people suffering mental health issues, alcohol and drug addiction and homelessness.
“It’s a very confronting situation people find themselves in when they are suddenly homeless,” she said.
Ms Henderson said that under the 2018 federal Budget, Victoria will receive $1.86 billion in housing and homelessness funding over the next five years.
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