Since I work from home in the suburbs, I rarely venture into Melbourne’s CBD anymore. But when I do I am always shocked by the large and seemingly growing number of homeless people sleeping rough on the sidewalk – something that was far less prevalent a decade ago.
Back in July 2016, The Age published an alarming report claiming that homelessness had reached “emergency levels” in Melbourne.
In December 2016, the not-for-profit group, Housing Choices Australia, claimed that Melbourne’s social housing is being overwhelmed as demand via population growth far outstrips supply, driving increasing numbers of people onto the city’s streets.
At around the same time, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), a federal government body, also released alarming statistics showing that Australians are accessing homeless services in record numbers.
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Today, The ABC has released another report on Melbourne’s homelessness, which has risen dramatically over the past decade:
“Seeing people camped out under the bridges … it’s quite confronting in a way that it wasn’t even seven or eight years ago.”
Kim wondered, what has caused this recent and visible increase in homelessness?
Keen to know the answer, she asked Curious Melbourne, an ABC Melbourne initiative [to investigate]…
A rise in homelessness over the past few years prompted Launch Housing to establish an outreach program targeting people sleeping rough in the CBD and surrounds.
Demand for Launch’s services is high…
Launch Housing chief executive Tony Keenan said there were simply not enough beds to go around.
“The three big crisis centres are about 160 beds in Melbourne; that wouldn’t even cover the amount of people rough sleeping in the CBD”…
“The last five or six years, seven years, I’ve noticed a big increase,” he said, adding that many people sleeping rough had given up trying to access crisis accommodation…
“There’s no money for accommodation, there’s not enough accommodation”…
Today’s heated housing market means there is greater demand for the lower end of the rental market…
That’s if they can find a low-cost rental in the first place; in recent years there has been a dramatic decline in the availability of houses people on a low income can afford…
“If you go back 10 years you could have expected that 25 per cent of the rental properties out there in greater metropolitan Melbourne would have been affordable to someone on our lowest income, the Centrelink income,” Jenny said.
“If you go out there today, it’s 6 per cent”…
Homelessness services have received little in the way of additional resources to cope with demand, meaning 98 people a day are turned away in Victoria alone…
At the same time as Melbourne’s homelessness has ballooned, the city’s population has skyrocketed – increasing by just under one million people (+26%) over the past decade alone – thanks primarily to the federal government’s mass immigration ponzi:
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The flood of people is clearly squeezing lower-income earners out of housing, forcing them onto the streets.
Another clear example of this has come to light in Melbourne’s outer suburb of Wantirna, where 153 permanent caravan park residents have been evicted without compensation to make way for a townhouse developer. From The ABC:
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In 2016, development company Longriver bought the land for $35.6 million, forcing the eviction of 153 permanent residents from the park.
The firm plans to build 294 medium-density townhouses.
Wantirna’s residents were devastated…
Unlike in New South Wales and Queensland, those living in residential parks in Victoria are not entitled to compensation when the land is sold from underneath them…
[One] pensioner estimates his home is worth $160,000 but he has struggled to sell it, as it is too difficult to dismantle and relocate.
“We had planned to stay here for the rest of our lives,” he said. “This was a community. I knew 99 per cent of the people in the place.
“Now it’s a ghost town”…
David Philliponi said his daughter was handed the eviction notice while he was away.
“It’s wrong the way it’s all been done,” Mr Philliponi said.
He bought his home in the park two years ago for $130,000.
“I don’t have the option of moving [from] this place,” he added.
How is it that a city like Melbourne can be awash with empty homes, and yet cannot find the resources to provide shelter for its growing numbers of homeless? Isn’t one of the key jobs of government to provide assistance to the most vulnerable members of society?
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
