Dreamy

Poor bloke's flipping unlucky when it comes to beggars!

Wendy

My brother does a lot of work with homeless people here in the UK. Some of them have terrible drug and/or drink problems, but then some of them have tragic stories to tell.

Maybe if there were more people like my brother in the world, people with a little
understanding and compassion, that dedicated just a little bit of time and effort to try and help them out, maybe there wouldn't be so much of a problem.

He helped out a guy yesterday that we met in the street, not by giving him cash, but by buying him a sandwich and talking to him like he was a decent human being. The guy was so grateful and happy to talk. Made me feel really proud of my brother

ProudVIC

Smith street is extremely dodgy. Full of heroin addicts and big aboriginal problems as well. It is one of the notorious streets of Melbourne in that regard. It's a very 'grungy' bohemian sort of area, a pub on every corner and has always been a real 'struggletown' sort of place.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/nation...772732669.html

Deancm_MKII

Just like St kilda before it became gentrified. Guess where the next place to become gentrified is...

As for abos... After 20 odd years of living in Melbourne I have seen very few of them and I can't remember the last time I saw one on Smith St.

ozzieeagle

My mate, was.the Liquor manager at the Safeway in Smith st... He has moved to Preston now. His biggest concern was Shoplifters rather than drunks.

The area attracts a lot of people from the Inner North for nights out in the really good value restaurants and bars. I've got no hesitation in going there.

A lot of people including myself, and a few Spanish people I know rave about this particular pub.

http://www.robertburnshotel.com.au/

man_called_Horse

Once I was in Dublin and this Eastern European kid about 12 came up to with an address card written in English saying something like

HELP ME
I HAVE NO MONEY
BLAH BLAH BLAH

He wasn't too happy when I got my pen out and wrote F**K OFF on the back

Sugo

I forgot about my earlier post, guess it just shows how persistent the problem is.

As for showing some compassion and helping people out, well I work in one of the city emergency departments as a nurse, I know the problems and history of many of the people on the street. I also know first hand that many don't want help, they want money for drugs and alcohol. One guy I know has a $250 a day drug addiction, he has been offered accommodation in a detox unit to get off the drugs. He refused this saying he was happy living his life, he liked the drugs and liked begging. At my dept we treat people very well and with respect, many of the emerg dept don't, we do offer real and genuine help.

There are definitely some that are genuine and do want real help but unfortunately they are few and far between. I have offered food to beggars before when coming out of Smith st supermarket, one guy looked at me like I was mad and told me to f**k off.


I remember a year ago walking home after a late shift and I still had my work lanyard with the hospital name on it. I walked past two women on the street, one asked if i worked at the hospital, i said yes, and she responded saying 'oh you'll be alright then'. I wished her a good night, then carried on walking, looked behind me and there were two guys standing in a door way. They didn't do anything but made me wonder what would have happened if I wasn't wearing my work lanyard. My hospital has a history for helping out the poor and needy.


I find some of the scams interesting that some people use to get money off others. Like the ones who dress up nice and say that they have run out of petrol and lost their wallet and need a few bucks to get home. Or the ones who are visiting a sick relative in hospital and need money for the parking. Or there is the women with pink hair who goes down smith st with her prescription saying she needs money to fill it or she will get sick. There is help out there and they know it, they just want the money for drugs.

As for Vancouver, yeah they do have a similar homeless problem as here however I plan to live in the West end/Downtown area. We stayed there on holiday and didn't see any homeless people and didn't feel threatened. There is East Hastings st in Vancouver and there can be fairly dodgy, but we walked down it and didn't feel threatened at all. Also have spoken to people who either grew up in Vanc or have lived there and have said that the beggars are a lot worse here.

I think some people do walk around blinkered thinking the grass is always greener here in Aus, I am very much living in the real world. I kind of wish i lived in a world of ignorant bliss. I think I need a new career away from having to deal with people who I do try to help and show respect to and then to have them spit in my face and treat me like a dog in return. Then at the end of a shift walk home and see the same faces trying to get money off me to feed a drug habit that got them in the situation they are now in.

I understand my experience is not the same for everyone other expat here in Melbourne. However my experience is a true reflection of what it is like to live in the Fitzroy/Collingwood area's of Melbourne. It has it's positives too, its a great place to go out to eat and drink and lots of coffee shops and has more ambiance than the new sterile suburbs and estates further out of the city. But it certainly isn't safe and I think its getting worse.


Just hope the upcoming election might spur people on to make some changes.

Doubt it though.

ozzieeagle

Why not just move to the Alfred Hospital, you wont get the beggars around Prahran, the OB wont allow it.

I'm sure there aren't many cities in the world where this kind of thing is a problem in certain locations.

Is it true that Heroin OD's are now being giving a blast of oxygen before the Narcaine to stop the violent reaction ?


Got to say this thread worries me slightly, the only people I know that live in that area are really well do do... like people that run lawyer practice firms, or Dentists or Company Directors. Maybe they dont go down Smith St.

Sugo

its an interesting place to live, there are alot of expensive trendy loft apartment and factory type apartments that are a million plus to buy and then there are social housing blocks and lots of homeless shelters.

As for working at the Alfred, they have similar problems only they don't seem to care for the people with as much dignity as us. We don't even turf them out when they are abusive, our ethos is they need to receive health treatment even if they are challenging. Also the Alfred and the Royal Melbourne are not the nicest places to work. Lots of agency nurses have remarked that my dept is much friendlier than the others. I thought they were unfriendly when I moved here, but they are tons better than the other emergency dept.

I just wish the police would actually police the problem more, and the persistent beggars were dealt with in a better way. Not sure if custodial sentences would work or some kind of court forced work programme. They are talking about doing court ordered enforced detox from drugs. Not sure about the ethics on that one but wonder if getting them off drugs and then a forced relocation might improve their quality of life. Sounds a little draconian though.

ozzieeagle

My wife is a Nurse at the Royal Melbourne, works with the Psychiatric patients. Our closest friends at present is a social worker for the Homeless at Oznam house. They would between them know a lot of the faces that are doing this begging. It's a hard problem to fix, because if it gets cleaned up in one area it just manifests itself in another. Not sure why the powers that be let Smith st go the way it is. When our freind is on night shift with one another female at Oznam house it's possibly one of the most precarious positions in Melbourne. Hardly any control at all, except for the way out. It's amazing that when we ever go out together down around Smith St....or anywhere else central for that matter how many people my wife and our friend know.in a professional sense.

You would probably be seeing the same faces time and time again in your role.


Despite all of this, for me the area you are living is probably the top of my wish list for us to live in. Albeit slightly further north in the big detached Victorian houses. I think it's the most desirable area in Australia personally. A lot of people we mix with would probably agree with me on this one. If one of those beggar types even thinks of looking at me, they seem to know what response they are going to get.


Just shows how tastes can vary.

Zambia

Sorry to hear this problem is continuing Sugo. Sadly working in hostipals you do get to see some of the nastier side of Melbourne that lives in the channel of bouncing from Police station to Hospital. Or any other service that is free.

Once again the situation you describe is more like robbery than begging.

As much as you feel the cops wont do anything please at least report these events. On the principal that if the event is not reported then the crime in essence never happened. If a local station does not have an picture of what is going on well they cant lobby for more officers for a foot patrol or even have operations set up to catch these guys.

This is all in the hope that one day someone in a simialar circumstance will suddenly see police intervention at the scene. They will think the police are on the ball whereas in reality it was due to all the previous people affected reporting the incidents and there times and locations.

Dont give up on Melbourne its so far above so many places in the western world.

hawk2005

Collingwood was always a rough area - just because the house prices are high in the area, as a result of people with more money than sense choosing to buy tiny little ex workers slums and "renovate" them, it doesnt mean all the more trypical residents (alkies/junkies/toothless bludgers) have all moved out.
Its the trade off of living closer to the CBD, as it is in a lot of cities. Your journey time to work may be a bit shorter, and the high density housing means more pubs/coffee bars to visit, but the ratio of riff raff to normal person will be a lot higher than places which are a bit further out.
That is why in a lot of cases when people have kids they tend to move to the suburbs - the drugs/dregs etc arent quite so in your face

ozzieeagle

Basically all you have to do, is compare Collingwood to a similar geographically located part of London.... So Collingwood = Bethnal Green/Shoreditch/Hackney. Pretty sure you get the same kind of problems there, and the same kind of Gentifrication.