MELBOURNE’S STREET DWELLERS
HOMELESS SLEEP ROUGH IN CAPITAL CITY
The real world effects of the national housing crisis are stark in appearance and cruel in nature. The droves of homeless that now inhabit our city streets attest to this. In a first world country like Australia, it seems absurd that human beings are compelled to “camp out” whilst hundreds of properties sit empty. But this is how it is. State and federal governments are either out of ideas or out of money. Perhaps both. Religious organisations, a once traditional source of charity, now mostly focus on operating a chain of op shops and producing slick marketing campaigns that involve a poorly constructed simulation of homelessness. Independently funded philanthropy seems to be extinct or otherwise its aims are not to alleviate poverty and extreme hardship.
Within this tempest, the homeless simply carry on. And their number continues to swell.
The city of Melbourne plays host to vast number of homeless people who live on the edge of our society. They are street dwellers and have no shelter or privacy. Some sit by themselves, dignified and deep in thought. Others quietly rant and rave. Others still, gather in small clusters and share conversation, exchange banter, or argue the toss. Some look like drinkers, whilst others appear to have never touched alcohol. Many are wrapped in dirty blankets, the muck from the city streets staining all that it encounters.
The faces of the homeless are varied and full of hard expression. I notice the crease lines that are carved into a face, and which suggest struggle and hardship met with stoicism. I observe the wild hair of another which causes me to briefly reflect on my own appearance. I see intense concentration as a bag is rummaged through, and philosophical speculation in a long range gaze. I see powerful eyes that penetrate, searching eyes that dart to and fro, and soft moist eyes that bypass my brain and vibrate into my heart.
Many of the homeless street dwellers have created cardboard signs that implore the passerby to donate money. On occasion, I deposit spare change into an outstretched hand, cup, or hat turned upward. Some of these hand printed signs provide a written explanation that describes in detail the circumstances of the homeless person. It is quite moving to read these accounts of misfortune and hardship.
The sleeping arrangements of Melbourne’s homeless population is perhaps the most confronting aspect of the national housing crisis. When sleeping or preparing to sleep, many of the homeless simply lie on the cold hard ground and are often covered by a blanket. There are no walls or doors to provide privacy. Shop awnings rather than ceilings and roofs are the only barrier to both drizzle and thunderstorm.
Linda & James | Melbourne
Some homeless are positioned beneath a shop window and lie parallel to the shopfront in what appears to be an orderly attempt at arranging one’s own self and one’s meagre possessions within the severe circumstances that comprise sleeping on a public street. But there are others, also homeless and clearly in a state of urgent need, who lay down in a convoluted manner, legs jutting out into the footpath and into the ordinary space of the pedestrian, who, without a hint of irony, can be observed stepping over or around the human body that is strewn beneath them and sometimes in the manner that one may adopt when seeking to carefully avoid street refuse.
And herein lies the contradiction. The presence of large numbers of homeless people living within the urban landscape of the city of Melbourne is highly visible and therefore undeniable. Concurrently, the presence of large numbers of people who enter the city to conduct business, to seek entertainment and to shop, to socialise and to explore the cultural highlights, is equally a highly visible occurrence and remains similarly an undeniable phenomenon. But it is this latter group who have homes to return to once they have completed their tasks or otherwise exhausted themselves. The homeless remain where they are, on the streets, without any form of appropriate accommodation whatsoever.
Therefore, the city of Melbourne is an enormous metropolis of three million plus people, where most residents have homes to live in. At the same time, a minority section of the population that is rapidly expanding in number has zero access to any kind of material support, including appropriate accommodation. With government intervention into this years-long housing crisis remaining quite limited in scope, and charity or philanthropy seemingly in very short supply, it really does seem to be the case that social change for the better is a long way off.
Finally, we should remain mindful that many of those that are presently homeless and are sleeping rough in city streets once had homes to return to and proper beds to sleep in. Understanding this prepares each of us for what is to come.
“Camping out” in Melbourne city
Author + Photos | Keith Salter
Punk Human 
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