By a St Kilda Elder
Having lived in St Kilda south for over 40 years, I have had numerous encounters with the homeless, or as the more woke amongst us say, “people experiencing homelessness”. Some rather pleasant - like when Rebecca stopped me in the Woollies carpark and offered me a bundy and coke if I would give her a cigarette. It was 8am so she was on her own with the bundy, but we had a fag together and talked about her life- she had once had a car but had lost it. She didn’t mention drugs but admitted she loved her booze. She quite liked the Acland Street area and told me most locals were kind and generous. Rebecca is probably in her late 30s, not unattractive and was articulate and easy to talk with, at least that day she was. Other times when I've greeted her by name, she has actually scared me. So there is clearly a mental health issue going on. Last week I saw her in the entry to the Coles arcade and asked her how she was coping with the cold and if she needed a warm jacket. She was a bit distracted but said she was ok.
My latest strategy with folk sitting outside the supermarkets asking for change, ( we probably cannot say begging ) is to ask if they are hungry or thirsty before I go in to shop, Then I can offer a juice or a serve of hot chicken on my way out. On occasion, in a fit of generosity or middle-class guilt, I have handed over $50. I stopped giving cash after I saw one large middle-aged man, sprawled in a doorway, throw the couple of $2 coins back at a lady who had deposited them on his hanky, screaming at her “that won’t even buy me a cuppa coffee!!”
Today on the ramp to Woollies I met Dale, a young man who would once have been considered handsome. This morning though, he had sores on his face and his forehead was bleeding. When I inquired, he told me they had fallen on his face onto concrete. I asked whether he was hungry and handed him $10 saying he could choose what he wanted to eat and if I could ask him couple questions. He is a regular on the ramp and I asked whether he considered himself homeless. He told me he had no-one, no family, no home. He told me he uses ice and showed me a nasty looking sore on his arm. He said if he can get the money, he sometimes stays in hotels for about $100. I asked him about money, and he said he gets regular money from the State Trustees, put there by his mother. I presume she made this arrangement before she died, to ensure he didn’t blow the lot on ice. When I said - oh gosh, ice is a really bad drug, isn’t it? he smiled for the first time and said - nah, I love it… feels good.
As we talked a bloke came down the ramp and handed Dale a small can of coke and a large bag of potato chips. He stuffed a handful in his mouth and almost immediately started coughing and gasping and muttered something about having been exposed to a gas leak down in Port Melbourne. The coughing fit continued, and I joked about me doing the Heimlich manoeuvre to help him. Then he turned nasty - telling me I was trying to make him talk while he was hungry and wanted to eat the chips. He was still coughing and blaming the gas leak and I suggested he have a sip of the drink. He got nastier and told me in no uncertain terms to bugger off. As I left I urged him to buy something a bit healthier with the ten bucks.
I feel over-whelming compassion for people sleeping rough but, what the hell can we do to alleviate this issue of people sleeping rough, begging outside shops and doing hard and dangerous drugs. According to the Security Guard at Acland Court, it used to be much worse some years ago. He said the gates to the court are locked at midnight, but he sees the occasional person in the doorways. The 'concrete garden’ at the end of Acland Street seems to attract groups of what might be called people 'without purpose'. Once I made biscuits and tried to hand them round to a few groups but had not many takers.
Many residents do feel apprehension and fear having to step over sleeping bodies on the streets of Port Phillip. I understand that some areas have become like open air drug camps. In summer I guess that is. There is verbal abuse and even my acquaintance Rebecca has charged at me screaming. The harm minimisation approach does seem to have created another industry of despair. Is providing food and blankets and social workers and clothes washing service and turning a blind eye to hard drug use going to heal these people? Help them get out of the vicious cycle of drug use and homelessness and more drug use…? Will drug decriminalisation and a safe injecting room make Port Phillip proud and productive?
I don’t know the answers - but homeless hotspots around the world are coming to the end of their progressive tethers. San Francisco residents are so sick of dodging human faeces on the sidewalks that they are reassessing their approach. They are wanting more prosecutions of the open use of hard drugs and petty crime like shoplifting. In Europe some countries require those seeking social benefits to attend drug or alcohol treatment centres or get help for mental illness. It was publicised in January this year that: “Port Phillip becomes the first Australian community to measurably reduce rough sleeping”. This was seen as a "key milestone on the path to reaching functional zero.” Data had been collated and stakeholders consulted, and money spent. I do wonder how much of our rates is spent on tackling these problems. And whether the drop in homeless numbers had a lot to do with Covid funds providing hotel accommodation. Still the challenge of too little affordable housing remains.
I was quite excited to see a recent item on the ABC news site, about Noosa Council considering an application by a builder, Greg Phipps, to build dozens of tiny modular homes to provide affordable housing in Cooroy, which will be self-sustainable - meaning no bills for residents. Good onya Greg! A great idea. Now where on earth could Port Phillip place dozens of tiny homes for the needy? Oh I know - Elsternwick Park! We must already have some equity in that improvement project, having kicked in hundreds of thousands…
At a Special Budget Meeting on 29 June the majority of City of Port Phillip Councillors voted to increase rates by 1.75%. Last year in the middle of a Covid epidemic Councillors increased rates by 1.5% and this year with the highest cost of living increases in many years, they increased them again. Councillors who voted for a rate rise: Cr Heather Cunsolo, Cr Louise Crawford, Cr Peter Martin, Cr Katherine Copsey & Cr Tim Baxter. Those who voted against it were Cr Clark, Cr Christina Sirakoff, Cr Andrew Bond & Mayor Marcus Pearl.
The only positive for residents was motion passed by Councillors requesting Council Officers to identify options for ongoing cost reductions that would enable Council to consider adopting a 0% rates increase in financial year 2023/24. Cr Tim Baxter and Cr Katherine Copsey voted against this motion. Cr Crawford voted for the motion and suggested that any savings could potentially be used to fund projects that were not fully funded.
The CEO is required to identify cost saving options by the end of November 2022 for implementation in the 2023/24 budget.
Council does not have to cut essential services to achieve a rates freeze. Council must stop wasteful spending and identify efficiencies to bring Port Phillip rates into line with other councils. It is disappointing that efficiencies could not be identified for the 2022/23 year and rates are set to rise again this year.
Is it too much to ask Councillors to actually vote for savings that would reduce the rates for residents who already pay some of the highest rates across Melbourne due to the high expenditure by council and Councillors?
Ant’s Rant - Source
It was only a matter of time that a serious accident or death caused by bad placement and planning of a bike lane had to happen. The one in Fitzroy Street is a prime example of a badly designed double bike lane with little or no thought to safety. The recent death of a 57 year old pedestrian on 10 June 2022 (https://7news.com.au/news/melbourne/respected-melbourne-charity-worker-revealed-as-man-struck-and-killed-by-cyclist-c-7310472) crossing this nightmare bike lane is a clear indication of how this anti-car ideology has gotten out of control and how little thought has gone into squeezing bike lanes onto our road system. Roads that have been designed for motorised vehicles such as cars, trucks and motorcycles with road rules designed to ensure a safe road transport system where there are consistent rules and drivers that are licensed to understand and obey these rules.
Is it practical to paint lines or place barriers on our roadways with little or no thought to safety or how this makeshift bike lane system would affect traffic flow? No thought to education of bike riders or rules where and when and how the system actually works. No consistency in how these popping up bike lanes connect or interact with traffic. Cheap, nasty, no thought, solutions hatched by council to solve the imaginary bicycle transport problem. Or rather a half-baked solution looking for a non-existent problem.
Forcing cars off our roads in anticipation or rather hope of a new world order where push bike riding rules our roadways is bizarre, foolhardy and a lunatics pipe dream that defies logic or reality. What evidence is there to support these dramatic wholesale interruptions to our road systems. Are bikes the future for the greater community? Babies, children, school students, mums, workers, shoppers, retirees, old aged and infirmed, will they all be getting around on bicycles now? If anything, there will be more electric vehicles adding to our road traffic congestion not less and for safety sake slow moving push bikes and faster moving motorised vehicles need to be separated from each other and not just by painting white lines on the roadways .
Our Council has made poor decisions with little or no input from the wider community who must endure poorly located and designed lanes. The bike lobby have undue influence on councils and our Councillors are not listening to the community. The greater community don't want these poorly designed and potentially dangerous bike lanes. Bike lanes must be designed to specifically keep everyone safe. There need to be rules for bike riders not just motorists. Some busy and fast-moving roads are not suited for bike riders and bike lane must be located in suitable street to keep riders safe.
We need well designed and interconnected bike lane systems that don't interfere with road systems. Proper routes, proper rules, and proper planning. Less and safer solutions not a free for all. The reality is that bikes will never outnumber vehicles on our roads, especially in inclement weather. Not everyone can or wants this as their transport system so council needs to take a reality check and redress the current foolish bike lane trend.
I would implore all residents to contact your Councillors and the CEO and get them to stop this madness before more residents are killed or maimed on our roads.
