Homelessness is not being penalised here in the City of Port Phillip, what we are addressing are safety and amenity concerns.
It's vital that homelessness is not conflated with community safety.
This is why we are responding with a pathway approach that addresses the underlying causes of anti-social behaviours that result in someone being a threat to themselves or others.
We are doing this by:
- strengthening our service agreements with outreach providers across housing, mental health, and alcohol and other drugs support, to help address the underlying drivers of harmful behaviour in public places. This triage response is supported by weekly operational meetings involving Council, service providers and Victoria Police
- amending our local laws so we have the ability to safely store encampment equipment where behaviours at camps are creating safety or sustained amenity impacts. No fines will be issued and belongings will be available for collection free of charge.
Our local law provisions continue to allow camping on council land if someone doesn't have a home or has complex needs. Our officers will receive specific trauma-informed training before the amendment comes into effect on 1 June.
This is a last resort option to help us address reported concerning behaviour at encampments after several steps, including outreach to welfare services, have been followed.
Support will always be offered first to address the underlying causes of behaviour.
We acknowledge and understand there are diverse views on this amendment. The common ground is that everyone wants improved safety in our public spaces, including for people sleeping rough.
To address homelessness, we call on the Australian and Victorian Governments to complement our Council's ongoing funding to service providers and community housing providers by increasing their own funding commitments towards:
- social and affordable housing
- mental health and drug and alcohol services
- community safety and policing.
Madden House in St Kilda, now home to 26 former rough sleepers who can access on-site wrap-around supports, shows what can be achieved in a partnership approach.
