this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2025
15 points (94.1% liked)
Melbourne
2186 readers
45 users here now
This community is a place created for the people of Melbourne and Victoria. We are a positive, welcoming and inclusive community. We might not agree about everything, but we always strive to stay civil and respectful.
The focus of our discussions is based around things that affect Victoria, but we are also free to discuss our local perspective on wider issues. Or head to the regular Daily Random Discussion thread to talk about anything.
Ongoing discussions, FAQs & Resources (still under construction)
Adoption Certificate for Nellie, the Daily Thread numbat (with thanks to @Catfish)
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
This is why I think covid was a wasted opportunity. Building / converting quarantine quarters near support services and re-purpose them for homeless and disaster (flood / fire) victims. Wouldn't win too many votes though.
That is a good idea.
but can you imagine the outrage at dorm quarantine conditions?
All it takes is one nutter going on a rampage, and the other inhabitants of a dorm would be adversely impacted. Also, keeping people in dorm conditions encourages theft and abuse - source : boarding school with upper middle/upper class kids (guess who the worst thieves were).
Yeah.
Given the instability of a lot of the homeless community - through mental health issues, substance issues, interpersonal stuff which gets so much worse when you have nothing except what you can keep safely with you - having a shared dorm setting has the potential to get really sketch really fast.
I live pretty much next door to a homeless hub in the CBD. The community garden which we so carefully planted and cared for turned into a homeless encampment because of overflow from the outreach centre…and while some of the regulars were okay if you were courteous with them, some were really, REALLY not. They trashed the place. Needles, broken glass, human waste, the lot. We had a couple of deaths in our garden, and more close calls on top of that.
None of us who had built the garden felt safe using it, and it’s only recently - having had the area cleared, fenced off so we could fix it without more rough sleepers immediately moving in, and a regular rotation of working bees now that the fence has come down - that we do.
I don’t know what the answer is, sadly.
Homelessness causes mental illness too. So having emergency dorms would save many people from that
Please, add in the Tragedy of the Commons. It's relevant.
I've been homeless too, and drug addicted at the time. And at the time, I would have run a mile from anything even resembling an emergency dorm. You say homelessness causes mental illness? I'd put it the other way around for 90% of people.
Sorry if I seem a bit adversarial about this, but the topic is one that I care deeply about, and I also refuse to tell myself comforting lies and indulge in nice fantasies about the actual effects in the real world. Cos I've seen the real thing. It ain't pretty. And no-one's grateful until they're already half way back into 'normal' life.
I’ve been homeless, in large part because of the fact that I was severely mentally ill. I was homeless for a full year.
The solution you’re proposing would get wildly scary within about three weeks