‘The situation is unacceptable’: The CBD street no one can solve - The Age

Anja Faustein is fed up with trying to run a business at the trouble-plagued southern end of Elizabeth Street.

“We have weekly incidents here where intoxicated people – either with drugs or alcohol – come in to steal or cause trouble,” Faustein says.

Anja Faustein in front of a smashed window on Elizabeth Street.Credit: Justin McManus

On Tuesday a man started kicking the windows of her pharmacy. “They didn’t do much damage to our window but then totally smashed EB Games and the travel shop next door,” Faustein says. One of the pharmacy workers called the police. “It just took forever to even report it for somebody to attend.”

Faustein has staff who have threatened to quit because they don’t feel safe. Some of her customers say they avoid the area. “I have an appointment with my solicitor to see if we can apply for rent relief because of the situation.”

Faustein is not alone.

A Melbourne City Council survey of 235 Elizabeth Street residents and workers this year found safety, cleanliness and making the space pedestrian-friendly were locals’ top three priorities.

Residents and traders who spoke to The Age raised concerns about crime, antisocial behaviour, drug dealing and filth. They believe a lack of policing, poor street design, social problems and neglect have caused a perfect storm at the southern end of Elizabeth Street.

Deputy Mayor Nicholas Reece acknowledges things need to change.

“The ongoing situation on Elizabeth Street is unacceptable and the City of Melbourne is doing everything it can to turn it around,” he says.

“Council has ramped up cleaning in the area, including a new daily 4am sweep and more graffiti patrols, and will work with landlords to activate shopfronts to make the area more vibrant.”

But the council is limited on what it can achieve alone, Reece says, and a co-ordinated approach is the only way to tackle the long-running issue.

On Wednesday, police held a meeting with Ambulance Victoria, traders, The Salvation Army and residents. It followed a roundtable, convened by Melbourne City Council last month, to come up with ways to improve safety and amenity in the troubled precinct.

The southern end of Elizabeth Street – which is opposite Flinders Street station and has a high concentration of fast food and bottle shops – has long attracted people with complex social problems including homelessness, mental illness and addiction.

But locals believe crime and antisocial behaviour is getting worse, in part because Metro Tunnel works have displaced people from Swanston Street. Some say creating a new public space by closing off southbound traffic between Flinders Street and Flinders Lane has also worsened the problem.

Businesses along the southern end of Elizabeth Street say drug-fuelled antisocial behaviour and violence has worsened.Credit: Wayne Taylor

Meanwhile, there is ongoing uncertainty about a second safe injecting room and wraparound health services, which had originally been slated for the former Yooralla building between Elizabeth and Swanston streets because of its proximity to drug use and overdoses.

Advocates say an injecting room here would save lives and move some of the drug activity off the streets, but some residents and businesses worry it would create a honeypot effect.

The government has now cooled on the idea and is sitting on a report by former police commissioner Ken Lay into the location of a second injecting room in Melbourne.

And plans to close whole blocks of Elizabeth Street to traffic, which Melbourne City Council signed off on in 2019, have been delayed by years due to the pandemic, Metro Tunnel works and fears about antisocial behaviour.

Stage one – the closure of southbound traffic between Flinders Street and Flinders Lane, and the creation of a new public space with planter boxes, bluestone paving and individual seats rather than benches – was finally completed in 2021.

Police say the most recent data they have shows crimes against the person – which includes assaults, harassment, threats, robbery and sexual offending – along Elizabeth Street had risen by almost 57 per cent in the past five years, from 218 incidents in 2018–19 to 342 in 2022–23. (Forty-four per cent of all crimes against the person were common assaults that resulted in no injury, such as pushing and shoving.)

Multiple participants at the recent roundtable called for a 24/7 police presence in the area.

Paul Crapper, the chair of the Owners Corporation Committee at nearby Leicester House in Flinders Lane, has twice been assaulted while walking his Maltese, Prince.

He has seen drug deals, witnessed robberies at Duncan’s bottle shop, watched groups harass LGBTQI+ youths, and saw someone defecate outside Woolworths on Elizabeth Street.

“I have been here since 2011 and it’s got worse since the installation of the concrete park and closure of one side of Elizabeth Street,” he says.

“The antisocial behaviour has largely been because there just hasn’t been enough policing. One of the things that I was calling for is to have a police shopfront on Elizabeth Street. The police need a permanent presence down here.”

But police say that providing a 24/7 presence at just one CBD street would only push the issues to other streets.

“Hundreds of police patrol the CBD every day, at all hours,” says CBD Divisional Commander Zorka Dunstan. “In addition, we regularly operate a mobile police facility at the south end of Elizabeth Street on Friday and Saturday nights.”

Victoria Police targets safety from all angles, Dunstan says, including joint initiatives with Melbourne City Council, cohealth and the Salvation Army focusing on begging and homelessness.

Operation Brightside, for example, targets begging in Melbourne’s CBD and Carlton, after local traders and members of the public reported feeling intimidated or uncomfortable when approached and asked for money. Operation Protocol refers people sleeping rough to accommodation services.

Last week an Operation Brightside team approached a man begging outside KFC on Elizabeth Street.

Police and Salvation Army members from Operation Brightside refer people begging on Elizabeth Street to support services.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

He told them he had lost his trousers – and his winnings from the previous night’s gambling – in the Yarra River and was trying to recoup his losses.

The police gently reminded him begging is prohibited in Victoria. (The maximum penalty is 12 months in jail.)

The Salvos, noticing his black feet, told him about The Living Room on Bourke Street, where homeless people can get showers and meals and obtain housing advice.

The police have referred more than 100 people to support services since October.

The Salvation Army’s Brendan Nottle.Credit: Justin McManus

Nine summons notices were issued to people who were begging but not homeless, after police moved them on multiple days in a row.

“These initiatives are not about issuing fines to those experiencing homelessness, or moving on people who are in genuine need of food – we actually want to get to the core root of the issue,” Dunstan says.

Commanding Officer of the Salvation Army in the City of Melbourne, Major Brendan Nottle, says some of the problems at the southern end of Elizabeth Street, such as youth crime, develop out in the suburbs.

“I have seen young kids with machetes and they have come in from Sunbury on the train,” he says. “If we’re going to address that, it requires some sort of government intervention out in the suburbs.”

Nottle would also like to see a mobile van on Elizabeth Street with GPs, addiction specialists and social workers who can develop trust over time with those who need help with mental illness, drug abuse and housing.

“I think it’s an unfair expectation that police will fix all the social issues that are evident.”

Lord Mayor Sally Capp says having a safe, clean and accessible city is of the utmost importance to the council.

The roundtable identified a range of actions to improve the safety and appeal of the southern end of Elizabeth Street.

“These include improving pedestrian and traffic flow, a greater security presence from Victoria Police, better communication with retailers, further greening, and breathing new life into vacant shopfronts,” Capp says.

These actions will be incorporated into feasibility studies for future stages of the Elizabeth Street project, which will be presented to the council in coming months.

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2024-03-02 18:00:00Z
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