Melbourne’s homelessness situation has become an increasing problem. Since 2014, the number of people sleeping rough in the City of Melbourne has increased by 74%, and as of January 2017 approximately 247 were sleeping on Melbourne’s streets. This rise in homelessness, combined with the fact that many people would be visiting Melbourne for the Australian Open, meant that changes were necessary. However, Robert Doyle’s proposal to effectively ban homelessness is not the best solution to the problem of homelessness. It does not tackle the real issues of homelessness, it simply attempts to hide them and it is unfair on the rough sleepers in the city of Melbourne as it puts them at greater risks.
The laws which Robert Doyle proposed earlier this year state that 'unless in accordance with a permit, a person must not camp in or on any public place.’ This is a stop gap approach and is comparable to an individual quickly putting all their clothes in the closet and under the bed to make their bedroom appear clean for guests. The underlying issue of the lack of storage for the clothes is masked by the quick fix of hiding the clothes in other areas. This is similar to how Robert Doyle intends to fix Melbourne’s homelessness crisis and just like the clothes analogy doesn’t address its causes, Doyle’s proposal doesn’t address the causes of homelessness, including untreated mental illness, lack of affordable housing and drug abuse.
"Homelessness is the direct result that we see when there are multiple system failures ... it's not something I can magic away because it's unsightly” said Melbourne City Mission's director of homelessness and Justice Services Sherri Bruinhout on radio recently and this sums up homelessness well. The housing system especially has failed miserably, with nearly 35,000 applicants on the public housing waiting list and approximately 10,000 people in the early housing category for the people in need of the most help, including those fleeing family violence, suffering mental illness and those at risk of homelessness. This is the biggest problem causing people to have to live on the streets, and it is what needs to be addressed by the government.
Melbourne’s homeless are already extremely vulnerable, and the reforms which Doyle suggested will only move the homeless further from Melbourne’s CBD, into more dangerous and less protected areas. This will increase the chances of assault and abuse, but will also make it harder for homeless services to locate and support the needy and susceptible rough sleepers around the city.
Rebecca Temple is without a permanent place to live, and therefore had to sleep in her car. She spoke at a Melbourne City Council meeting on February 7th 2017, "If I didn't have that car, the first place that I would be sleeping would be in the city because it is the safest place, I would feel quite scared anywhere else, sleeping in parks outside of the city or somewhere it was dark." Ms Temple was lucky enough to have a car to sleep in, but many others weren’t as fortunate. The city lights gave the homeless a sense of safety and security, and this should not be taken from them and replaced by the darkness of outer city parks or alleyways.
Other cities especially in America have attempted to fix its homelessness problems, and this is where the people in power should look to for ideas and guidance. In Los Angeles, laws similar to the ones proposed in Melbourne were brought in and considerable costs were expended, however still at least 5,000 people live in the 50-block central city area. San Francisco have tried to deal with the issue of homelessness by providing housing for the rough sleepers, but despite good intentions they failed to fix the issue of mental illness, and also there wasn’t enough space for the large amounts of homeless people.
The best example of a city fixing its homelessness crisis is Salt Lake City. Utah has managed to reduce its homeless population by 72 percent in the past nine years through by implementing a Housing First Program. Tenants pay $50 a month, or 30 percent of their income. The program intends to “create more jobs, redistribute the wealth, improve education, socialize health care, and basically redesign our political and economic systems to make sure everybody can afford a roof over their heads.”
The methods practiced in American cities should be thoroughly analysed by those in power in the city of Melbourne. They must realise that simply changing laws didn’t work in Los Angeles and will not work in Melbourne, and that the best way to combat the issue of homelessness is to have a multi-faceted approach which addresses the major factors of homelessness, like the approach in Salt Lake City.
So in closing, I leave you with this from Sarah Kendzior; “When wealth is passed off as merit, bad luck is seen as bad character. This is how ideologues justify punishing the sick and the poor. But poverty is neither a crime nor a character flaw. Stigmatise those who let people die, not those who struggle to live.”
Home
Help
Search
Login
