Image by JlascarJorge Lascar (License CC BY-SA 3.0)
Every time I flick on the tv, which admittedly is not often at all, I always hear the news reporter announce the weather forecast or other such trivial local news by referring to Melbourne as “The world’s most liveable city”.
“The weather forecast this week in the world’s most liveable city”
Being originally from Sydney myself, I chuckle every time I see Melbournians (their word, not mine) trying to be the best and out stage the great city of Sydney. Yeah sure, you might have some trams and a generally clean city, but WE have the bridge, the opera house, and our new year’s fireworks show is much better than yours. So eat it, Melbourne! You will never be like us!
But seriously though. Melbourne has been ranked the world’s most liveable city for the last 7 years in a row; which is a remarkable achievement. The metric by which the liveability of a city is determined is by examining a city’s political/economic stability, access to health care, access to education, infrastructure, culture and environment. But… no mention of access to employment opportunities?
“Do the rough sleepers have nobody but themselves to blame for their life on the streets? Some of them, yes it is their own fault. Did drugs, or do drugs play a part in them being on the streets? For a number of them, yes this is also true. Do they deserve to be on the streets? In one word: No”
You know, I’m old enough to remember when people held cardboard signs on the streets of Melbourne, begging for work. When the city of Melbourne was littered with shanty-towns, particularly around Flinders St Station and under the Queens St Bridge. I also remember long, long ago when the poor and destitute queued outside of St Paul’s Cathedral, eagerly awaiting a free meal. All of this happened… well… just 2 weeks ago when I took the photo below. Being such a liveable city is probably why so many homeless and unemployed people choose to live on the streets of Melbourne… right?
“I feel sorry for those suckers living in Sydney”
All jokes aside, by international standards, Australia’s unemployment rate is pretty good: sitting at a 51 month low of 5.5%. But whilst on the surface our unemployment rate looks relatively healthy, it is very misleading. Unemployment may be down, but underemployment has now climbed up to 8.7% . These statistics are even more horrifying when you look at Melbourne’s individual suburbs. In 2015, the Melbourne suburb of Doncaster had an unemployment rate of 10.4%, Dandenong had an unemployment rate of 21.5%, and poor Broadmeadows lead our state with an unemployment rate of 26.7%. That’s right, in 2015, more than 1 in 4 adults from Broadmeadows were unemployed.
You might be inclined to think “but Harry, surely the 26.7% includes students, retirees, stay at home mums, and other people who are technically unemployed?”, but no, it does not. The international definition for unemployed persons, as set out by the International Labour Organisation, (ILO) is someone who is both able and willing to work, and who is actively, or has actively tried to find employment sometime in the last 4 weeks. If you don’t look for work, whatever the reason may be (studying, kids etc.) you are not counted in the statistics.
Let that sink in for a moment. Some parts of Melbourne had a situation where 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 people were out of work, and trying to find employment.
Did someone say “world’s most liveable city”?
So how about all those people who have no job and no hope? Who are unemployed and have given up or simply are unable to look for work due to circumstances like, I don’t know… sleeping underneath a bridge? 2016 saw 247 “rough sleepers” on the shivering streets of Melbourne, a 74% increase in 2 years.
“And then it’s the hidden part of the iceberg that really scares me.” Says Melbourne’s Lord Mayor Rob Doyle,
“Behind those 247 rough sleepers are tens of thousands of people in housing distress.”
Tens of thousands… no job, no home, no hope in hell.
Where did we all go so wrong?
Let me be very frank here, because I know that we are all thinking the same thing right now: Do the rough sleepers have nobody but themselves to blame for their life on the streets? Some of them, yes it is their own fault. Did drugs, or do drugs play a part in them being on the streets? For a number of them, yes this is also true. Do they deserve to be on the streets? In one word: No. Homelessness is not a glamorous life, and it is not a suitable “punishment”. Who wants to live on the freezing streets of Melbourne, especially as winter is now upon us? Is homelessness justified for someone who ruined their own life? Is it a reasonable punishment? I think not.
And not all rough sleepers share needles or are addicted to ice. Some are just ordinary people who haven’t been as fortunate as the rest of us have been in our lives. Whether it be mental illness, escaping domestic abuse, or disability, the rough sleepers all have their own unique stories to tell.
There’s help available… IF you know where to find it
There are many organisations running programs to help those on the streets: The Red Cross, St Vincent De Paul Society, Mission Australia, Wesley Mission, The Salvation Army and Father Chris Riley’s “Youth Off The Streets” are just a few of the many organisations that offer crisis and support services, as well as employment skills and training in their efforts to end poverty and homelessness. But in my experience in social work and welfare, one of the greatest barriers to accessing these services is that those in need are simply not aware of the services being offered or how to access them.
Rough sleepers do communicate with each other and they do help each other out. When you’re on the streets, you must help each other if you want to survive. If someone starts giving out free food on a street corner every Sunday, then word spreads very quickly, and before long, large groups are turning up looking for a feed. Communication is very good amongst the rough sleepers, so now we just need to give them the right message to pass around… “Help is available”
I hope I never get the opportunity to take a photo like that again…
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Harrison Stamoudis is a freelance writer from Melbourne, Australia. After a lifetime of being praised for his intellect and being told “you can do anything you want”, he was doomed to grow up without guidance and direction (it’s difficult to pick a door when they are all open for you). Aimlessly wandered from one job to the next, he struggled to pick a path and stick to it. Harrison often had to work multiple jobs just to make ends meet and the work history list on his resume is a little longer than he cares to mention. Harrison is currently in the process of completing higher education (for a third time) so that he may make his next major career change, this time civil engineering.