A person sleeps on the side of the street in Melbourne’s CBD.

Rapid urbanisation is a growing issue in many cities. Described by the World Economic Forum as Australia’s fastest growing city, Melbourne continues to require growing infrastructure and affordable housing to accomodate their growing population. According to ABC News, in May 2020, there was a recorded 594,300 people who lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic. At the height of the Covid-19 crisis in March till June 2020, 6,000 people each month were forced to seek out homelessness services according to a 2021 study.

Temporary resident Seonwoong Baek was given notice by his landlord in June 2020, during the height of the pandemic that he needed to vacate his rental property by September, prior to the lease expiring in November 2020.

Mr Baek’s said his landlord told himself and the other tenants the reason they needed to vacate was so they could move back into the property themselves, because they couldn’t afford the rent of their current place of residence. Mr Baek said shortly after they were given this notice the landlords started renovations on the property. Mr Baek said he believe they were actually getting ready to sell the property.

“It felt dishonest, I felt like they lied,” Mr Baek said. 

Even with various government support schemes implemented throughout the pandemic, many temporary residents could not access financial support. 

In addition to receiving an eviction notice, Mr Baek who is initially from South Korea, said as a temporary resident, he could not access financial assistance and had no family in Australia who could help him. 

 “I was upset because I pay tax like any other Australian but there is no compensation,” Mr Baek said.

Temporary visa holders were excluded from JobKeeper and JobSeeker despite many working in heavily casualised industries such as hospitality and retail. 

In April 2020, the government announced a moratorium on evictions as a result of financial stress caused by the pandemic. 

Temporary moratorium’s meant that if rent was not paid due to severe financial stress as a result of the pandemic, tenants could not be evicted. According to ABC News, the moratorium was initially intended to last 6 months however was extended to the end of 2020. Mr Baek said that while the landlord told the tenants they would have to vacate prior to the end of the lease, they received a notice from VCAT (Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal) at the start of October 2020 that they had 60 days to move out. 

A bus stop bench in St Kilda is separated into shorter sections by raised dividers to prevent people from lying down.

Despite the need for visibility for Melbourne’s homeless during the pandemic, anti-homeless architecture characterises Melbourne’s most vulnerable suburbs. Kim Dovey, a professor of architecture and urban design at the University of Melbourne told news.com.au that this hostile architecture, prevents the homeless from loitering or doing activities that may be considered undesirable, such as sleeping in public. The design techniques are often subtle however are made in ways that prevent people from lying down such as raised spikes or bars on benches.

A small curved bench in St Kilda means people without a bed for the night have few places to comfortably or safely sleep for the night. 

The suburb of St Kilda opened their doors to more than 2000 homeless people in order to protect them from Covid-19 in August 2020. Concerns were raised when these hotels became hotspots for violence and illegal drug activity. A previous rooming house in St Kilda was closed prior to the pandemic in 2018, due to safety concerns surrounding increasing drug-fuelled violence according to an ABC News report. 

A sign on the front of a commercial building in St Kilda tells people to keep off private property.

The lack of suitable housing facilities for Melbourne’s growing homeless population requires the government and the private property industry to create new ways to implement social and affordable housing. According to an article by Metropole, the medium house price in Melbourne is significantly higher than the medium price across the state. A 2020 research study by Roy Morgan found that almost a million mortgage holders in Australia experience mortgage stress.

Ray White Property Manager Natasha Ferdinands, said that whilst price of student accomodation dipped due to lack of international students, housing prices in general “stood strong.”

Mrs Ferdinands said that despite the eviction moratorium, tenants still accumulated debts after this period of rent relief ended in March 2021. 

“This caused further stress and anxiety to those without income or reduced wages,” Mrs Ferdinands said.

Mrs Ferninands also said that after the moratorium period finished most tenants ended up having to leave their current rental properties as they could not afford to stay as government assistance schemes also finished also. 

A person’s belonging are left out the front of an abandoned property in Melbourne’s CBD. 

While there is a need for Melbourne to allow access to more affordable housing, lack of available land in combination with growing demand create a double burden for those experiencing stress from lockdown restrictions. In addition to high cost of land, a research study by ULI (Urban Land Institute) reports that a shrinking labour force amongst the pandemic means increased cost of construction. 

A mural on the side of a Brotherhood of St. Lawrence building in Sandringham increases the visibility of Australia’s growing homeless population to the wider public. 

While many rental properties in Australia remaining unaffordable to those on unemployment benefits, recent reports suggest that the investment of social housing could reduce the number of people living on the street as well as contribute to Australia’s economic recovery. According to a 2020 research study by Everybody's Home, if the Federal Government invests $7 billion in social housing, it could boost the post-pandemic economy by $18.2 billion, and create 18,000 jobs per year over four years therefore making a significant impact on Australia’s homeless.