International visitors should not be confronted by homelessness.

There has been a surge of disapproval registered in the media recently against the homeless who have set up ‘camp’ outside Flinders Street Station.

A collection of homeless people has gathered in Flinders Street and other nearby streets over some weeks now.  Many people find them a confronting prospect – this rag tag bunch of people, talking loudly to each other, and possibly to you when you pass by, and who knows what they might say.

It’s apparently okay if they set up camp under bridges or in some other part of the city where they are not so obvious, but not outside one of the two main city stations.  People do not need the uncomfortable reminder that not everyone lives the lovely, easy lives most of us are privileged enough to live.

I walked past recently and one woman had set up a ‘kitchen cupboard’ on the footpath by her sleeping bag and other possessions.  Was I impressed?  I was. The few items she had were set out in a neat arrangement that made my untidy kitchen look like some sort of rubbish dump.

Now that Tennis Time is approaching the last thing we (the affronted we) want is for the image of the Most Liveable City in the World (I ask you?) to be tarnished by a pack of homeless people, right there in the city proper, for the entire world to see. 

Steps will be taken.

Homeless person's space outside one of the City Loop stations.