r/melbourne • u/FuckOffNazis • 20h ago
Serious News Why are rough sleepers dying a stone’s throw from luxury waterfront houses in Victoria? | Victoria
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/oct/17/rough-sleepers-dying-a-stones-throw-from-luxury-waterfront-houses-victoria-homelessness70
u/universe93 15h ago
Because as the media said the other day rents have become so high we’ve pretty much hit the maximum amount people with full time jobs can afford to pay for rent, aka the rent ceiling. And that’s people who already have jobs and probably are already renting. What exactly is someone who is unemployed and on the streets meant to do
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u/Tedmosbyisajerk-com 15h ago
It can still go up. Look at London and New York, they're paying a lot more than us.
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u/universe93 14h ago
They definitely can but landlords are already struggling to find tenants with the rents they’re currently charging. There comes a point where most people just can’t afford to pay what they’re asking. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-08/tenants-hit-breaking-point-record-rent-costs-according-to-domain/107238110?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=link
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u/Tedmosbyisajerk-com 11h ago
Interesting! I suppose NYC and London also have a certain quality about them that Melbourne doesn't. They're the places to be if you want to make connections, not necessarily live forever, and people are willing to pay a lot more for that opportunity.
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u/Haunting_Heat3296 9h ago
I lived in New York and i know London is pretty similar; everyone lives in medium to very high density, a lot have family support, and early career people or blue collar people on lower wages tend to live either absolutely jammed into small places or very long commuting distances out of the centre.
There’s also a critical mass of well paid jobs that just don’t exist elsewhere in finance, tech, property and for the lucky few in fashion, music etc.
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u/Blue_Pie_Ninja 10h ago
Look at how tiny some of the London and New York apartments are and you'll see that even with the insane rent, you have basically 0 space.
Australian apartments are spacious by comparison.
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u/Rude_Influence 5h ago
Steal. What's the worst that can happen? They go to prison, get a roof and a meal every day.
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u/Spagman_Aus 17h ago
As someone who grew up in that exact area, this saddens me deeply. The lack of services down there has been a problem for half a century and doesn’t look like improving any time soon hey.
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u/Aus66-1045 13h ago
Because, as a society, we're brainwashed to ignore homeless people and people living in extreme poverty. We're told they are failures, and that it's not that society has failed them. This is all totally untrue. Society has truly failed these people. Sure, some of these people do have issues like mental illness and alcohol & drug problems, but there are also people who are not like that and just find themselves homeless. They may be couch surfing or sleeping rough outside. So maybe if you're reading this, instead of wondering why homeless people are dying on the streets near luxury waterfront houses, try helping out. Donate money to charitable organizations that help homeless people.
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u/Sweet-Psychology-254 12h ago
Also, a lot of people probably just don’t want fo think about it because the idea that it could some day happen to them is frightening.
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u/discardthemold 13h ago
If you were homeless you'd do alcohol and drugs too dude, they're not a means into themselves.
Let's not pretend that there's two tiers of homeless, the "drug addicts" and the "non drug addicts".
Mental illness comes from not having secure housing.
The reason isn't there's not enough charities, the reason is capitalism.
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u/Aus66-1045 11h ago
I never said there were two tiers of homeless people, but just trying to point out that not everyone is the stereotypical homeless person that some people automatically think of. I was just trying to say don't tar everyone with the same brush.
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u/QualityQuaaludes4U 11h ago
Sorry, jumping in hear to ask why there are so many charities and what they are actually doing? Every suburb in Melbourne has 2-5 charity op shops, staffed by volunteer labour and getting their stock for free. They are busy! People lining up to buy stuff, where does all this money go? To pay staff, to pay management? Or to actually helping people? The major charities have prime real estate all across Australia, pay no tax, have volunteer employees and the tills are ticking over. I spend $100 or more a month at them, am I doing my part? Should I donate on top of that? It's a multi-million dollar industry but it's fucking crickets when people are passing the blame around to the government of the day! Maybe we should have more oversight of these organisations. Just because you wave a bible at it, doesn't mean your running an actual charity!
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u/Aus66-1045 11h ago
I understand your point, but there are a number of non-religious homeless charities that provide food, blankets, showers, accommodation, swags, and all kinds of support, and they work very hard to help. They do boots-on-the-ground work. Donate to them.
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u/othervee 10h ago
There is plenty of oversight of (the vast majority of) charities; all their info on activities, staff and volunteer numbers, funding and expenses, is on the ACNC unless they are very small or a ‘basic religious charity’. Yes, most of them use their charity shops to raise money for the charitable operations of the organisation. There are so many partly because they service different areas and do different things. With homelessness for example, some run shelters, some offer basic services like food and showers and laundry, some specialise in particular cohorts (families, people fleeing family violence, youth) and some will offer legal advice, or referral to medical services, etc.
Paying staff and management is helping people, in theory at least. You need people with appropriate skills and training to run services and to manage operations - and to understand and deal with accounts, legal obligations, privacy, etc.
The issue of being ‘too many’ charities is one that comes up periodically and it’s complicated. New charities have often been established because of gaps in services provided by existing ones. Others because someone believed in a different approach. Some existing charities were set up to provide an alternative to the bible-wagglers, to help the cohorts who would not be comfortable or get appropriate help from a religious charity.
It’s definitely a flawed system, but so is every human system.
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u/IntothewildZen 19h ago
I don’t know how many people will read this article, usually these discussions quickly turn into a vitriol of toxic arguments but “housing” itself would not be enough to help, homelessness is a complex issue with mental health, drugs, alcohol, inability to rehabilitate back after being in prison all contributing.
It’s not as simple as providing a place to stay. No doubt it’d help some but there needs to be profound changes.
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u/Life-low 18h ago
Housing alone doesn’t automatically fix the other factors associated with chronic homelessness, but ‘housing first’ policies are generally considered best practice and are well supported by the evidence. It’s a lot easier to treat and manage complex mental health and addiction issues when you have a safe and stable roof over your head.
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u/AmorphousMess 16h ago
Nah. I work in an ED and it’s just an endless parade of drug addicted people coming in being rude and aggressive, demanding we provide them a bed overnight and solve their housing issues when they’ve been recently kicked out of their accommodation for drug use and antisocial behaviour.
They take up an inordinate amount of time and resources, make staff and other patients feel unsafe, and very often malinger (this is something that can be determined by an assessment by emergency and psychiatric doctors) suicidal threats to try and manipulate and gaslight staff.
These people are not like that because they don’t have a safe and stable roof over their heads. They are reason why so many others don’t have a safe and stable roof over their heads. Homeless services often try and prioritise housing for certain subsets of homeless people and then many of these people turn around and shit the bed with their antisocial behaviour time and time again with drug use.
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u/IntothewildZen 15h ago
Yeah, I worked with social services and it was the same picture.
You place them in accomodation and they’ll fight others or steal their belongings or try to use drugs and no one will want to stay there.
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u/Prime_factor 13h ago
Living with an alcoholic roommate was so bad that I do not wish it on anyone else.
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u/Life-low 15h ago
Housing first ≠ housing only. Obviously placing people in housing without the required support is useless, but the evidence is clear that stable accomodation makes the other support possible and effective.
Working in social services can really exhaust your empathy, I hope you’ve had a chance to process your experiences.
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u/Borrid 1h ago
They didn't say lack of housing was the cause. They said it's a lot easier to treat those issues when people have a safe and stable roof over their heads.
Housing First is specifically aimed at the group you're describing, chronically homeless people with addiction and mental health issues, many of whom keep getting evicted for exactly the reasons you mention. Large trials like At Home/Chez Soi in Canada found people stayed housed far more consistently than with standard services, and among the highest-need people there were reductions in emergency department and hospital use.
I don't doubt what you see at work is exhausting and real. But you're seeing the people the current system is failing, not the ones who got stable housing and stopped showing up. "Some people are hard to help" isn't really an argument against the approach that has the best track record with helping those people.
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u/meggiellybean 16h ago
Gross. I hope none of my loved ones ever ends up in your ED.
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u/Life-low 15h ago
The complaint is directly addressed in the abstract of the linked article as well.
“In addition, as Housing First programs provide access to health, mental health and other support services, tenants are less likely to be admitted to hospitals and emergency departments and are less involved with the criminal justice system.”
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u/ThatGuyMaji 19h ago
in the same vein having instability when it comes to housing is an incredible stressor and super alienating, so it's no surprise that mental health issues and addiction soon follow. while it wouldn't be a magic bullet having the necessary public housing would go a very long way to supporting these people and giving them dignity
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u/hellbentsmegma 14h ago
Yep, if you don't have mental health issues when you become homeless you soon will have. Staying awake all night to make sure nobody steals your stuff or attacks you, then trying to snatch sleep during the day while the rest of society is awake and making noise tends to do that.
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u/Spagman_Aus 17h ago
The fact that even rent down there can be over $700 a week in what has ALWAYS been a lower economic area, is a disgrace. Yeah rents are high everywhere, even higher than mortgages in some areas and successive Governments lacking the balls to tackle it head on sickens me.
So here’s where we are now.
One of Victoria’s most beautiful areas lacks services that should be standard anywhere in a western country, has properties that the average worker can’t afford to rent, has one of the longest public housing wait times in the country and Labor & the Coalition wonder why they’re losing votes.
This is what decades of neglect and Government indifference mixed with ignorance and laziness looks like. Who’s running the council? Why is the local MP not being grilled in the news?
What a disgrace.
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u/IntothewildZen 15h ago
I live in a wealthier area and rents are lower than that.
I pay $560 a week and live in a beautiful quiet neighbourhood, so there are places cheaper than that.
Mornington is not exactly an impoverished area and it’s near the seaside.
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u/universe93 14h ago
I do ponder the virtue of living by the seaside in VIC. Yeah it’s pretty but this is Victoria, it’s probably not very pretty when it’s grey, raining and a high of 10 degrees for a good chunk of the year.
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u/IntothewildZen 11h ago
This is exactly why I prefer a greener neighbourhood closer to mountains than the beach.
Seaside is still bunch of concrete buildings around you and whether still sucks : )
Mountains within driving distance or a house with a garden beats the beach anytime for me.
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u/Waasssuuuppp 1h ago
What about Mornington, right next to Mt Martha and Mt Eliza and not too far from Arthur's seat?
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u/twinstudytwin 14h ago
The average worker can afford to rent the average property. You can make a point without resorting to bullshit hyperbole.
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u/Spagman_Aus 13h ago
“Data from Cotality shows that between September 2020 and 2026, the median rent in the area jumped from $513 a week to $723, and is now higher than Melbourne’s $648. The median cost of a house is $1,025,900, again higher than greater Melbourne, which sits at $915,119.”
From the article. It’s not hyperbole. Rents are outpacing wage growth, it’s a fact.
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u/Generalaladeeen 19h ago
Thank you! Not enough people here actually understand the real issues behind homelessness, they all think its something out of a Charles Dickens novel.
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u/-SnuffBox- 18h ago edited 13h ago
It is also widely viewed as a criminal matter rather than a social one. It is
literallyessentially a crime to be homeless. I was walking up Swanston the other day and cops started handcuffing a guy because he wouldn't move. He was just sitting there peqcefully, minding his own business.Until we decriminalise homelesness and start treating these people with respect and dignity, and help them, then we will never see an end to homelesness.
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u/Firm-Complex4093 17h ago
the dudes living on swanston street do not get arrested for just being there.
theyre usually disturbing the customers of a business, if theyre not downright on private property. the guys outside bank of china building like to talk to get rowdy and try to touch kids coming off the trams.
the police dont even arrest people who are being drunken belligerents. the new rules teach them to let drunken people go, even when theyve committed "minor" offences like property damage.
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u/-SnuffBox- 16h ago
This is down by the Flinders corner of Swanston. He was not disturbing anyone. I was watching it whilst waiting for someone.
To me it looked like he was asked to move, and simply refused. Then they slapped him in cuffs. I am sure that kind of response is not likely to help his situation.
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u/the_left_hand_of_dar 2h ago
I think police ask people to move on when they have had a complaint. If the person refuses the police move them on.
This is a bit of a response to the huge amount of homeless camps that were popping up in the city. It was a pretty huge conversation a few years ago. So now we act faster here.
I feel mixed about it. If you are homeless I don't know that you need to sleep on the busiest pavements like Flinders st. I kinda want it to be looked after by social workers. Although in other bits of the thread you see the story of a lot of these people have had public housing but have lost it due to damage drugs and alcohol.
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u/IntothewildZen 16h ago edited 14h ago
It is not a crime to be homeless. Police cannot arrest you for being homeless. There is nothing in legislation that supports that.
Closest thing is breach of peace which is specifically made clear in law that it’s not an offence, you can’t get arrested for it.
Lot of these people will engage in risky or anti-social behaviour towards passerby’s some of which will be a crime others will not. Police prefers to tell them to leave if it’s not the crime of the century, even if they commit crimes unless it’s serious, all they need is to find out who they are then they are free to leave, they will investigate and come back later.
Problem is that they don’t leave.
Which doesn’t give them much choice so they then arrest them and start the process which they hate as they have other things to do.
These people don’t think like you or I, they don’t care if they get arrested, which is another issue as it makes them reckless and they’ll take risks.
There is no easy solution to this.
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u/-SnuffBox- 15h ago edited 15h ago
I am not saying it is literally a crime.l, sorry that was a bad choice of words to use. I am saying it treated as such. The demonisation, cruel treatment and indifference creates an enviroment which causes these individuals to engage in high risk, and yes sometimes, criminal behaviour.
Like I said, this man was just minding his own business, disturbing no one. You pretend like the system we live under is a perfect vacuum where police could not put handcuffs on this guy for simply sitting there. He might not have been arrested but he was certianly being detained, and for nothing. What recourse would this man have if he was arrested anyway? He doesn't have access to the same legal privilages most would, he might be dissauded from persuing any recourse because of his situation, and he might not even have the faculty to understand or engage in that way. So yes, although it is not literally illegal, it is still treated as criminal.
"These people don't think like you and I" That is the exact lack of empathy or understanding that creates this issue in the first place. In HS a homeless man spoke to our class about how he got into that situation. Without getting into it, it was a complex story, but he himself was fully cognizant, had fallen on hard times, and because of the way society is setup, had real troubles getting out of his situation. Not having a fixed address is a seriously difficult problem to overcome when you think about what you need one for.
Yes, it is treated as criminal. It is extremely hard to get out of, and it should be a social issue.
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u/IntothewildZen 13h ago
Putting someone in handcuffs without proper justification triggers a process that gets people in hot water.
I don’t know why we imported this American jargon but “detaining” someone does not result in handcuffs unless you are armed and they have to search you to find that.
It also puzzles me as someone who worked with social workers and agencies how people see some random dude and go “he was just minding his own business”.
That’s what you see.
It’s not necessarily what it is.
Most people are not who you think they are.
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u/-SnuffBox- 13h ago
I know it lands people in hot water. The whole point of my last comment is that the likelyhood of an officer facing any real consequence for doing so is greatly diminished by who they are doing it to. That is why despite your protest, the world is not binary like you describe, and that officer may feel enboldened to act that way because of that fact, not in spite of it.
Okay, so there you have it, he was being arrested. We have imported American style policing on homelessnes so why not the jargon to go with it.
Ah, you have worked with SS and agencies. Must be more than qualified to talk on the topic then.
You saying that's what I see does not diminish from the fact that homelessnes is largely seen as a problem to swept under the rug. He may or may not have done something to warrant the cuffs, but I am saying as a broader issue they should be met by qualified social workers, with a general ability to apply genuine and effective help, not be picked up by Police. If it has reached that point then we have already failed. You need to understand that.
It is not the job of Police to deal with this issue. They enforce the law, so by your own stated metric, it is not within their wheelhouse. And yet I have never seen a social worker approach a homeless person, only ever a Police officer. Weird.
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u/IntothewildZen 12h ago
Ah so you are one of those “anti” crowd.
Doesn’t matter, I am open minded. It probably makes no difference to you, which is ironic considering how some people claim to be all progressive but they’ll have doctrines they refuse to change when it comes to quite a few subjects.
Australia is nothing like US. Neither our health or justice system. We don’t have entire suburbs full of people standing in vegetable state on fentanyl, neither we have ICE executing people in broad daylight.
So spare me your “SS” comments comrade, you have no idea what you are talking about, I walked in those camps in Europe, I have relatives that died in massacres in other parts of the world, if we had “SS” anywhere in this country, you wouldn’t be able to make those comments and I wouldn’t be able to respond to you.
You are just overdramatising complex issues because it makes you feel good while you sit behind your comfy phone screen and type angry comments.
You are not helping solve anything.
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u/twinstudytwin 14h ago
It's not a crime to be homeless, but do feel free to post more bullshit
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u/-SnuffBox- 13h ago
Yea, that was the wrong choice of words. Doesn't make the rest any less salient, though.
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u/DarthShiv 12h ago
A massive social housing program for the last few decades would have mitigated this issue. Many countries do this so much better than us.
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u/SophMax 18h ago
Yes. The other thing is that there's services available and people that want to help but people don't always want it.
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u/blasphemousharlot 17h ago
the services are literally at capacity. if you are homeless the most they can usually do is a week in a motel. theres a 6 month minimum wait for the priority category of public housing and if you don't have custody of children or are couchsurfing you are not considered a priority and it goes up to 18 months. you also need ID (which a fair amount of homeless people do not have, as your things tend to get lost or stolen), a postal address and access to the internet/email to keep on top of any applications you might make. it's not right to say that most people are rejecting help, when the help offered is so hard to find.
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u/Life-low 17h ago
It’s also impossible to access the minimal services that are available if you don’t know that they exist or how to navigate the system. The amount of times friends and family members essentially become lay-social workers to help the vulnerable people in their lives clearly indicates a gap in service provision.
What are you supposed to do if you don’t even know where to start?
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u/WastedOwl65 17h ago
Do you realise there's a waiting list for services, because there aren't enough available! You'll never understand until you become homeless!
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u/Cyraga 19h ago
Corporate profits doing so well though. The banks are taking in money like never before. There's no money for feeding humans and sheltering them /s
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u/Generalaladeeen 19h ago
Homeless people rarely go hungry here
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u/Donakebab North 17h ago
If by rarely you mean very frequently then yeah. Most homeless people in Australia only have one or two meals per day, and the meals they do have are insufficient.
It's not only homeless people going hungry, 3.5 million households, about one in 1 in 3, face food insecurity.
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u/Fifth_Wall0666 19h ago
It's genuinely confounding that the entire developed world has literal billions of dollars of infrastructure to house and accommodate human beings, from giant office spaces, parking garages, display rooms, empty hotels and motels...
... and yet we're told there's nowhere they can go.
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u/brontohai 19h ago
Same reason none of them are staying at your place? Is that confounding?
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u/Life-low 18h ago
I’ve never understood this gotcha. I’ve absolutely housed people who are temporarily in need of accomodation when I have space, and a huge number of homeless people ‘couch surf’.
Unfortunately it’s not feasible for me (or anyone else concerned about this systemic issue) to squeeze the entire homeless population onto our couches, so the situation obviously requires systemic intervention.
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u/TheQuantumSword 19h ago
When you suddenly notice that capitalism is utter evil bullshit, and the rich can buy their way out toward a form of elite socialism, which they then tell you is evil and you are not allowed because .... capitalism.
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u/redchairyellowchair 18h ago
I never really spent time down the peninsula but a long lasting impression for me is the song 'Run' by Seth Sentry about his childhood growing up there. He raps
Most of the kids I know from the Peninsula stayed, But if you don't have a trade then everything is just so hard
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u/Dismal_Reindeer 12h ago
There is a dude very clearly living in the park next to me and has been for months. I don’t know how to help him, I want to, but I’m also scared of offending them with an offer of support
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u/fraqtl 19h ago
Because Australia hates the poor. That's why.
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u/OudSmoothie 19h ago
Most societies hate poors. We ain't special. We're rich enough to do something about it tho!
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u/Generalaladeeen 19h ago
Inequality and homelessness has always been an issue and now suddenly the Guardian just happens to care right before a state election?
Using rough sleepers as a virtue prop to brew discontent against incumbent state government is wholly dishonest, the worst part is i doubt they'll give this issue any of the attention it deserves past November.
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u/Alternative_Sock6999 19h ago
Guardian flag social issues pretty often.
Newscorp you'd probably have a point. Guardian less so.
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19h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Alternative_Sock6999 19h ago
What even are you on about? And what has that got to do with my comment?
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u/FuckOffNazis 19h ago
The Guardian has had an explicit inequality reporter role since 2021 with Stephanie Convery.
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u/WastedOwl65 16h ago
Pretending this has just happened shows your privilege! Because all you've got to worry about is an election!
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u/Act_Rationally 14h ago
Are you guys Labor government staffers or something? Afraid of being unemployed come Xmas?
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u/Generalaladeeen 14h ago
The irony of saying that while failing to acknowledge Labor has done more to address homelessness and housing insecurity than the LNP or PHON.
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u/Act_Rationally 14h ago
Blah blah blah Labor good other parties bad.
Got it. Hope your emergency fund tides you over to your next paying gig.
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u/Longjumping_Radio268 17h ago
Probably has something to do with prioritising their drug abuse over their own wellbeing
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u/Finbarr-Galedeep 15h ago
Because this country is a fucking shithole unless you can afford a lifestyle which requires being very wealthy.
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u/ScatLabs 17h ago
People continue to talk about housing as some "complex problem" but never want to acknowledge is an over supply of people and an undersupply of places to live which rampant immigration places on society and downward pressure on wages.
I'm not discounting the substance abuse and mental health elements, but they are usually the consequences of people living rough, not the cause.
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u/Entire-Reindeer3571 16h ago
Simple: Labor is becoming hard core socialist and people keep voting them in at the same time they ask why society under their rule is morally decrepit, we are broke as a state, the wconomy is dying and we are overtaxed.
People who still think it's the old Labor... that's the problem. They haven't realised the current Labor party cares more about fringe causes than workers.
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u/Beast_of_Guanyin 18h ago
The article cites a few things but doesn't actually offer any solutions.
Happily the solutions are fairly simple. Rent is an easy problem to fix. Reduce immigration so vacancy rates go up from their current lows, introduce european style rental laws, and keep messing with taxes to ensure housing prices stay stable for the next 20ish years.
As for mental health and drug abuse we simply treat that like the health issue it is.
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u/fraqtl 17h ago
If rent were such an easy problem to fix, they'd have done it already.
It's not easy because too many people's wealth relies on investment properties etc.
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u/Beast_of_Guanyin 17h ago edited 17h ago
They're not fixing it on purpose. We fully control our own borders. We fully control our own tax laws. We fully control how we treat druggos and nutters.
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u/-SnuffBox- 17h ago
Reducing immigration is robbing Peter to pay Paul. A lot more of the country relies on it that maybe you realise. Enforcing stricter rental laws is fine. These people are literally priced out of living in a home, and seeing as rent prices are directly locked in with property value, housing should be more affordable.
Alternatively, a Government incentive to make private developors build high quality social housing would not be amiss. Only developers who can adequetly provide what is needed benifit from some kind of incentive.
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u/Beast_of_Guanyin 17h ago
I fully realise how dependent certain parts of the economy are on immigration. It's a massive reason why we don't train enough doctors ourselves for example. If Uni's need to make slightly less profit so people can afford a home that's a valid price to pay.
Lifting the vacancy rate directly lowers housing value as it limits how much landlords can charge.
Meanwhile trying corporate welfare to get cheaper houses is at best a bandaid.
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