Police move in on homeless people and supporters at Melbourne camp

Extract from The Guardian

Group chants ‘poverty is not illegal’ and holds up placards as police assist with attempts to relocate them to social housing

Homeless people protest outside Flinders Street station in Melbourne. Photograph: Melissa Davey for the Guardian

Melissa Davey

Wednesday 1 February 2017 13.31 AEDT 

Police have moved in to remove homeless people and their supporters from a makeshift camp established outside of Flinders Street station in Melbourne’s city.
The group chanted “homelessness is not a crime” and “poverty is not illegal” and held up placards as police arrived to assist with attempts to relocate them to social housing. Staff from the Salvation Army were also on standby.
While about half a dozen homeless people were outside of the station on Tuesday, by Wednesday morning more had joined the camp to protest and by the afternoon, a large crowd of protesters had gathered. The majority were not homeless people but advocates or passers-by who joined in.

By about 1.30pm, police formed a human barrier between the homeless people and the street, blocking them off from supporters, onlookers and the media. At least five arrests were made.
Acting commander for the north-west metro area, Stuart Bateson, said police had to move in to allow restoration work planned for Flinders St station to be carried out safely.
“We tried to negotiate with those that remained, but ultimately when we moved in we were met with resistance from a small group of protesters,” he told reporters during a press conference.
Four of five people arrested during the operation were protesters rather than homeless people, he added, with one police officer punched in the back of the head. Another man who was arrested had been ramming police with his mobility scooter.
The situation at the station escalated throughout the day as passers-by watched the commotion and protesters headed to the scene to join in.
The housing minister, Martin Foley, urged “those protesters who have flocked to this in more recent days to cooperate with police”. Three nights accommodation has been offered to the remaining rough sleepers, with many moving on and accepting short-term housing in recent days. But advocates want a longer-term option.
However, Foley is implementing a $616m homelessness package which includes $185m towards 1,100 public housing properties.
One of the protesters, Amanda Parker, said she used to be homeless herself and had joined the demonstration in a show of solidarity. She criticised the media for demonising homeless people, with News Corp publication the Herald Sun saying in an editorial that “with the filth, intimidation and hygiene risks … there is enough to meet criteria for police to move in and move these vagrants on”.

The council said the groupwas being moved on because builders were preparing to repaint the station as part of an upgrade and restoration project. Trucks with scaffolding on the back were parked in front of the station on Wednesday.
But Parker said she believed the painting work was being used as an excuse to remove homeless people from outside of the station.
“I think this is about tourists and that these people are being moved on so that the city doesn’t look bad,” she said.
While homelessness has long been an issue in Melbourne, rough sleepers have found themselves under particular focus since the Australian Open began in January, when tourists poured into the city and used Flinders Street station to get to the tournament.

A homeless person outside Flinders Street station in Melbourne. Photograph: Melissa Davey for the Guardian

Last week, representatives from the state government, homeless services, councils and other groups held a crisis meeting on the issue. There had been fears the council would move to criminalise homelessness, however the lord mayor, Robert Doyle, said there were no plans to do so.
Simon Zlatkin, who describes himself as “on again, off again” homeless person, held up a sign outside of the station saying: “Secure society, house the homeless.” He said he had been told on Wednesday morning that police would move them on within hours.
“If I was in government I’d be building more social housing and building more homeless shelters rather than moving people on,” he said.
As he spoke, a man who had been walking past the scene interjected and began yelling at those taking part in the protests. “Make some sacrifices and get yourselves a bloody job and maybe you’ll get somewhere,” he yelled, as police moved in to calm him down.
Another police officer was calmly explaining to a group of homeless people and their supporters that social services were on standby to assist people. For the past two weeks services had been trying to engage with those at the Flinders Street camp, the officer added. She told the group that some of the rough sleepers at Flinders Street were “new” and had joined the camp that morning from other areas.
A City of Melbourne spokeswoman told Guardian Australia that the council had been working closely with outreach support services, including the Salvation Army and Launch Housing, for many months to ensure that the rough sleepers had every opportunity to find housing and support.
“Since December 2016, together with the Victorian government and a range of agencies, we have advised the rough sleepers that the area needs to be cleared to allow for work to begin on the Victorian government’s redevelopment of Flinders Street station,” she said.
But the rough sleepers showed no sign of moving on by Wednesday afternoon, surrounded by bags containing their few possessions and slogans of resistance scrawled on the station walls in chalk behind them as a growing contingency of people joined in.