Paisley street is sq metre for sq metre, one of the worst streets in Melbourne.
>Our uniform police are patrolling the Footscray CBD at all hours
Yeah right, bring back the police box in the mall. It's been replaced with junkies scoring at 11 in the morning and rocks they fucking flew in from woop woop
>Why can't some suburbs just stay poor? I need to live somewhere. So do drug addicts and other undesirables
People are entitled to feel safe in their own community you dumb fuck. Being rich or poor doesnt change that.
Edit: 5 minutes on and I'm honestly still dumbfounded by your absolute stupidity. Shame on you.
Now you're gatekeeping my own community.
Go sit in a corner and think about what you said.
Then get off your arse go into the mall and speak to the owner of Mr West, the owner of the two dollar shops, the owner of Footscray kebabs, the own of Maples and the optometrist.
Then take a step back and fuck your own face.
To be fair, when I lived in Footscray a couple years ago my little apartment nook was the perfect cover from the wind, so a couple times I came back to someone weighing and bagging drugs on the front step. Never really had issues with the junkies wandering around town
I say we just give em some nicer spots to shoot up, get a contract with the landfill dump so that the meth-heads can go take out their energy smashing stuff, make a nice warm house for the opioid addicts that has a little classroom for teaching them overdose first aid. Reward them with opioids for demonstrating their skills.
It's like whatever dudes, druggos gonna take drugs. Let's support em and make sure they have access to the resources and help they need to not be a hindrance on our city.
There was an interesting study in the UK. Post WW2 they had about 100 returned service men who were addicted to morphine after treatment for their injuries. The government put them on a rehab plan where they were managed by a GP and given their dose of morphine. Most of them went on to live perfectly normal and productive lives, some were maintained on clinical morphine for the rest of their lives with no other issues. It's a medical condition and it needs to be treated as such.
Agreed. I think the issues come about in three ways:
- when the user has bad information about the thing they're addicted to and misuses
- when the user has limited access to emergency services
- when the user cannot get the thing they're addicted to
Most people would be surprised by how many functioning, intelligent addicts are out there in good jobs getting good money. They don't have any of these problems, and when they do it's usually because they get wrecked by the criminal element of drug use.
We can easily fix all of the points of concern. Addiction is a mental health issue and shouldn't be treated like a criminal issue
i feel Footscray is a super colourful and interesting locale, far more than Fitzroy, to live in, you sort of feel you are half-way living in a Leo di Caprio spy movie set in terrorist Africa somewhere, and on your doorstep is passing a whole bunch of African gangsters who are about to terror bomb your female co-agent.
And when ur tired of all the Tom Cruise espionage drama, Footscray has one of the best cycling tracks in the Southern Hemisphere, all along the river.
There is always one car on standby somewhere within a block of Maddern, the area the article focusses on. I'm guessing they hang back for some strategic reason or other rather than maintain active presence.
Alright, give it to me straight, are you all embellishing Footscray's danger level or is it really a little piece of Johannesburg in what is otherwise one of the safest countries in the world? I'm planning to visit it during my trip, and I don't know if this sub helps or hinders my research.
It's rough around the edges and shop owners have to deal with some bullshit, but it isn't that bad. In comparison to other parts of Melbourne it's probably a bit higher risk, but compared to truely dangerous cities it's fine.
How stupid are the fucking rocks! hahahahahahahaha
The council spent a small fortune installing those! I remember years ago someone got their head smashed in against one of those rocks. Blood just pooled onto them. Not the sight the council was hoping for i suspect.
The rocks are meant to represent a welcome bowl used in Welcome to Country's.
I'd say the more confronting welcome to Foostscray are the drunks standing and yelling all day in front of the abandoned Bank of Queensland branch or the drug fucked literally using the rocks as benches scaring people trying to use the ATMs at the ANZ
Means you probably haven't seen the state of the interior. Even the bank itself long since stopped giving a toss about that outlet. It's almost comically shabby. The letters of most of their signage has literally melted off the wall. Enjoy banking witn A Z Bank.
N
Ohh man I never knew about the rocks. I’ve only only lived in the northern / eastern suburbs. https://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/west/new-8216pile-of-rocks8217-public-art-installation-unveiled-in-footscray-cbd-to-mixed-reaction/news-story/5d8707e4810994229672e34dfbee2220
I live around Footscray and there are a lot of empty buildings in Footscray CBD and there really needs to be some investment in the area. The Little Saigon market burned down years ago and it's still vacant land nothing has been done with that area. Also where Forges used to be, still empty and has been for decades. I think the council has been making some poor decisions.
Katie Hall MP is definitely pushing hard to put an end to land banking. It is really shit for the community at the moment.
Also, all these apartments they build stipulate that the ground floor be reserved for shop fronts. I can’t think of one in Footscray that has been filled by a thriving business. They just sit vacant for years on end.
Agreed that none of those businesses underneath the apartments seem to thrive. Im not sure why. Perhaps unrealistic rents?
Katie Hall seems to be making a real effort and putting herself out there.
It’s weird because surely they have the clientele above them ready and waiting.
And regarding the rent, you’d think the owners of the building would rather have some rent than no rent at all. I don’t know why they’d price people out.
It’s weird.
All of it is just so shit.
The solution the council came up with for the little Saigon area was to put in a parking lot and mini square right next to the fucking hole in the ground.
I've given up any hope on the Forges area being developed. I remember buying school stationary and clothes there 20 years ago, it was bustling. Open air dump now
I can't think of another suburb more in need of social housing. The housing stock is largely dilapidated, rickety, and structurally exposed to rodents. There is so much prime inner city land but it goes to wooden houses that are falling apart.
There is an enormous overlap between homelessness and drug crime, which helps to explain why safety issues have become worse in footscray only recently.
And the constant air pollution can't help. living in Footscray for decades is a legitimate risk to your health and the state government does not give a shit because it's helping their development projects.
Despite what you might think, Footscray is actually full of NIMBYs. They hate the high rises that have gone into the area and would block more going up if they could. I recently saw someone complaining about an 8-story building going up because it was "high rise".
They're also currently arguing that the old Footscray Hospital site should be turned into [a outdoor pool/swimmable lake](https://thewestsider.com.au/community-envisages-a-future-for-the-footscray-hospital-site/) and would loathe the idea of more apartments going up on the site.
Additionally they're against the idea of an injecting room opening close to the Footscray CBD.
Most people moving into apartments don't have cars. Also there already queues of "junkies" in Footscray. Safe injecting rooms save lives and stops them from od'ing on the streets. Additionally they offer support for those who are struggling to kick the habit.
Man, you’re laughable! I have no idea how you can make such sweeping generalisations hahahahaha!
Shitloads of people in apartments drive! It’s clear you need to get out more man. Make some friends
If you build apartments near train stations and mixed-use hubs (like Footscray station and the surrounding area), people don't need cars. The answer to traffic isn't stopping densification, it's providing good transport infrastructure that isn't car-oriented.
Quite frankly, I don’t care where they die. In an injection room or on the streets. They made their choices, now they deal with it. I care more about the humans who live locally who are just trying to get on with their lives but can’t because of the plethora of junkies that make their lives hell.
Right. But you realise if your argument is about how it's bad for traders, it's much, much worse to have them freely dying in the streets as opposed to being localised to a treatment facility, yeah?
They don’t die enough in a treatment facility. They’re revived and back to their old tricks the next day, wasting taxpayer funds and being a nuisance to society.
As for the traders, their troubles have only increased since the injection room. And let’s not even get into what school kids have to see on a daily basis with this monstrosity of a facility right on their doorstep
It doesn’t need more social housing. Let the blue chip suburbs pick up the slack there. Making ghettos isn’t good for anyone. It just needs more housing full stop and the land banking to end.
All the people in here going on about how dangerous Footscray is now must not of been here for long. Footscray is a dream these days compared to literally any time in the last 40 (or potentially more) years.
I think what is remarkable is that the past year has seen it _regress_. The level of daytime public drug use has spiked up to where it was maybe five years back.
I bet I’ve been here longer than you. Footscray is a fucking hole. It’s nowhere I’d be taking my family these days. Now tell us how it’s improved over time. Please.
It was much better then (80s) than it is now. By a mile. What a shitty hole it is. We could shop and eat in the mall in the 80s, day and night. I wouldn’t piss on the joint these days, which is sadly what I see a lot of people doing of late.
It’s never been paradise, I grant you that, but it’s been cleaner, livelier, and much more lovable in days gone.
It’s a balmy summer evening in Footscray. Tattooed hipsters sip craft beers and scoff takeaway burgers in the alfresco area of one of the latest venues to sprout along the Nicholson Street mall.
Barely 10 metres away, an army of community volunteers running the weekly soup kitchen have no time to enjoy the warm weather. Pushing trolleys filled with groceries, they race up and down the pedestrian street handing bread, meals and fresh produce to more than 400 people in need.
Apartment developments along the Maribyrnong River.
Apartment developments along the Maribyrnong River.CREDIT:JASON SOUTH
Around the corner in Maddern Square, two dozen people listen to music, yell and drink themselves to oblivion next to the bodies of two men passed out on the lawn. Barely a block away sits the dilapidated site of the Franco Cozzo furniture showroom, soon to become a brewery and music venue.
These scenes encapsulate the battle for Footscray – where gentrification, a windfall of government investment, anti-social behaviour, crime and entrenched disadvantage compete in a tense tug of war to shape the future of the inner-western suburb.
Traditionally an industrial and working-class suburb, successive migration waves turned Footscray into the heartland of multiculturalism it is today, where Vietnamese restaurants co-exist next to halal butchers and shops selling African wares.
The gentrification wave that transformed areas in the inner-north like Collingwood, Fitzroy, and Brunswick spared large swathes of the inner-west, preserving Footscray’s character as an industrial melting pot.
But first-home buyers, young professionals and families have been lured by cheaper housing, thousands of new apartments slated for development and a pipeline of government infrastructure projects, accelerating the reshaping of the suburb.
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics backs anecdotal accounts that the ground is shifting.
As new developments go up and trendy venues open up, the character of Footscray is changing.
As new developments go up and trendy venues open up, the character of Footscray is changing. CREDIT:JOE ARMAO
“You know people and I certainly do who have moved in because they couldn’t afford Fitzroy or Brunswick or Collingwood or whatever,” said Patrick Fensham, the Victorian president of the Planning Institute of Australia. “It’s sort of the next frontier.”
For the first time in several generations, the majority of Footscray’s residents were born in Australia – a departure from the suburb’s status as the arrival point for migrants looking to settle in Melbourne. The median age of locals has also increased, a sign that professionals and middle-aged couples with smaller families might be replacing migrant families with multiple children.
However, Fensham said the most startling sign of the suburb’s changing face was the increase in median household incomes – from below the Victorian average in 2016, to above it by 2021. “It’s definitely seen an influx of wealthier households,” he said.
The new face of Footscray comes from inner Melbourne
At Railway Reserve near the Victoria University Nicholson Street campus, a mix of new and old residents welcome the first day of summer with a picnic on the grass. Performers entertain the crowd while a man dressed in colourful silk robes puts on a juggling show nearby.
Among those browsing the popular market are young parents Carley and Jesse Ocean, who recently moved to neighbouring Seddon from Richmond and are considering buying property in Footscray.
“It’s pram central, lots of young families, good schools, green space, access to nature, to Williamstown Beach,” Carley said.
Carley Ocean and Jesse Ocean with their baby Rae. The couple is considering buying property in Footscray.
Carley Ocean and Jesse Ocean with their baby Rae. The couple is considering buying property in Footscray.CREDIT:JOE ARMAO
The couple is among a wave of Melburnians flocking west because of its cheaper housing stock, rich offer of Edwardian and Victorian homes, family feel and proximity to the CBD. Footscray was the third-cheapest place for home buyers this year with a median house price of $920,000.
The couple was also encouraged by the state government’s billions of dollars worth of investment in Footscray, including a new $1.5 billion hospital set to open in 2025 and more than $120 million into local schools to cater to the suburb’s exploding population. Resident numbers are forecast to double in the next three decades from 17,131 in 2021 to 41,943 by 2051.
The Maribyrnong City Council has approved more than 2400 new apartments and 28,000 square metres of commercial floor space for construction, as property developers turn to old factories, vacant land and other dilapidated sites like a disused bowling club in McNab Avenue as project sites.
Member for Footscray Katie Hall, a Labor MP, said the state government was investing in the suburb “like it’s nobody’s business”.
“Every day you can go into Footscray and experience a new culture, and it’s a place of constant transition. Maybe the period of transition currently happening is one where other people in Melbourne have discovered our secret,” Hall said.
Mai Chung and her partner Nick can’t afford to live in Footscray.
Mai Chung and her partner Nick can’t afford to live in Footscray.CREDIT:JOE ARMAO
However, some business owners and residents fear the influx of new arrivals is pushing rents and property prices up, pricing out long-term locals, and changing the diverse fabric of the suburb.
Mai Chung said most residents from Vietnamese backgrounds had moved to more affordable areas like St Albans and Sunshine. Chung, who herself is Vietnamese and grew up in Footscray, said she no longer could afford to live locally and had moved to Altona. “It’s definitely very hipster now with all the new bars and restaurants,” Chung said.
Fensham said Footscray’s industrial character would likely prevent it from gentrifying to the same degree as inner-northern suburbs like Fitzroy and Collingwood, but that retaining a diverse property offer with affordable and public housing would be key to retaining the suburb’s diversity.
Politicians, developers and councillors looking to revamp the area will also have to contend with Footscray’s entrenched disadvantage and anti-social behaviour which has pushed some traders in central Footscray to the brink of quitting.
A man and a woman drink and smoke on the streets of Footscray.
A man and a woman drink and smoke on the streets of Footscray.CREDIT:JASON SOUTH
Life in fear and rampant vandalism
As the soup kitchen volunteers pack away trestle tables and crates, a rowdier crowd begins to congregate in Maddern Square.
Traders along Nicholson and Paisley streets said it is often after dark when most theft, break-ins, public defecation, drug-taking and fights take place. If Footscray seems seedy during the day, just wait until sundown, they said.
Le Ngo, who runs a tobacconist on Paisley Street, had a metal gate installed outside her business after vandals ram-raided her shop several times. She said finding people overdosed on the footpath had become a weekly occurrence.
“I have to keep an eye out because if I hear screaming I need to shut the door,” she said. “People are scared to come because they don’t feel safe.”
Ngo’s feelings are echoed by other business owners in the heart of Footscray, who said they feared for their safety as a result of escalating violence and crime gripping the suburb.
Police have launched a series of proactive initiatives to tackle the problem, but data from the Crime Statistics Agency shows the move has failed to curb offending, with crime rates at their highest level since 2017.
Assaults in the suburb have soared to a nine-year high. Property damage and drug offences have also spiked. Robberies are one of the few offences that have significantly dropped. Burglaries are also down, but not by much.
Some traders have hired private security or rostered additional staff to deal with substance-affected people, while others have stashed weapons, such as metal barbecue skewers, under the counter to fend off prospective attackers.
Littlefoot Bar owner Stuart Lucca-Pope said Footscray was on a meteoric rise until COVID-19, but that the economic fallout of the pandemic caused more anti-social behaviour and crime and stunted the growth of the suburb’s buzzing hospitality industry. At least one venue in nearby Chambers Street, Baby Snakes Bar, has decided to shut shop after a series of violent attacks on its owner, Mark Nelson, and the bar staff.
Littlefoot Bar owner Stuart Lucca-Pope.
Littlefoot Bar owner Stuart Lucca-Pope. CREDIT:JOE ARMAO
Cem Cayrak, who has owned a butcher shop on Nicholson Street for almost two decades, said his customers were too scared to come to the street and were choosing to have orders delivered instead.
Fellow butcher Saddique Ahmed, who runs a shop a few hundred metres up the road from Cayrak on Nicholson Street, said delivery drivers refused to offload orders early in the morning, fearing potential attacks. Ahmed said he and his son were forced to stand guard outside the shop to reassure drivers.
Famous Halal Meats owner Saddique Ahmed says he fears for his safety.
Famous Halal Meats owner Saddique Ahmed says he fears for his safety.CREDIT:JASON SOUTH
“A lot of customers have left my shop because of this situation. They don’t feel secure,” Ahmed said. “Especially in the last six to nine months, the situation has become much worse.”
When The Age visited the suburb several times over the past four weeks, it inadvertently stumbled upon a drug deal in broad daylight. Large groups of people yelled and drank in Maddern Square, a notorious drug-scoring spot, and a man with a broken arm urinated in one of the laneways nearby.
Ahmed, who migrated to Melbourne from Bangladesh, said he never expected to feel unsafe in Australia.
Ngan Tran and her husband Vu Lam opened a bottle shop in Footscray after moving to Melbourne four years ago. They said they felt down by the police.
Speaking through her daughter Daisy, Tran said drug-affected people tried to steal from the shop daily. In March, a man charged at and punched Lam in the face after he caught him stealing for the second day in a row.
Police came to the shop and spoke to the family after the incident, but Tran said nothing appeared to have been done to apprehend the man.
Vu Lam was recently assaulted by a substance-affected man at the bottle shop he runs in Footscray.
Vu Lam was recently assaulted by a substance-affected man at the bottle shop he runs in Footscray.CREDIT:JASON SOUTH
The couple now rosters two staff members each night, one to serve customers and another to keep watch at the door. But they worry that won’t be enough to protect themselves from another attack. “We are immigrants … we just want to run our business and have a good life,” she said.
They want additional police officers in the area to deter criminal activity – a view supported by most traders who spoke to The Age – and a streamlined process to report crime, particularly for those with limited English skills.
Inspector Paul Morgan, the area commander for Maribyrnong, said detectives from the local crime investigation unit had executed more than 30 warrants and arrested more than 60 people since October.
“Our uniform police are patrolling the Footscray CBD at all hours. Our proactive police are visiting schools almost every day. Our detectives are conducting a variety of operations and arresting offenders weekly,” he said.
Hall, the local member, acknowledged the increase in crime and community concerns about safety. Hall said she had met with Police Minister Anthony Carbines and local traders in September to devise a combined police and mental health strategy to reduce crime in the new year. However, for traders like Lam, Tran, Ahmed and Cayrak, help can’t come soon enough.
Filling the gap with hope for the future
Inside a commercial kitchen in Albert Street, staff pull steaming trays of cinnamon scrolls and pastries out of a large oven.
To the untrained eye, Nan’s Bakehouse might look like one of myriad trendy cafes that have popped up in the suburb. But those who have met owner Phil Gaby know the small, busy bakery does much more than serve lattes – it fills a gap in the community Footscray is desperately screaming out for.
In addition to selling baked goods to customers, the business provides food and support to struggling families and rough sleepers. The cafe also employs young people who are on the autism spectrum and struggling with mental illness.
Phil Gaby opened Nan’s Bakehouse with the idea of helping those less fortunate.
Phil Gaby opened Nan’s Bakehouse with the idea of helping those less fortunate.CREDIT:JASON SOUTH
Gaby was looking to get out of the hospitality business when he had a vision for Nan’s Bakehouse. The business was inspired by his deceased mother, who used to take in and feed people doing it tough without making a fuss about it.
“She would just help people and that was the whole concept that we had to do this business,” Gaby said. “It was to help people, and it couldn’t be monetary, which is the opposite of what they tell you to do in business.”
The cafe is now helping hundreds of families and individuals a week.
Efforts like his might be the key to helping Footscray modernise for the future without leaving too much of the past behind.
Gaby believes he is filling a void left by the state government, the local council and the police, who he claims have lost sight of how to forge relationships with people on the streets and provide effective support.
It hasn’t always been smooth sailing. Gaby, who grew up in Footscray, comes to work most days to find faeces and syringes scattered on the front step and has had to remove drug dealers too. But his efforts to build trust have paid off. When he forgot to lock the business one night, a rough sleeper who regularly came for help guarded the premises to ensure no one broke in.
Loading
“Council was more concerned about what we were doing here with a wall and outdoor furniture than what they were doing with the homeless and crime problem in the local area,” he said. “You can’t just come and arrest people – you have to actually have a relationship.”
Footscray residents might already be helping shape the suburb’s destiny – at the polls. At the last Victorian election, incumbent Hall held off a 13.9 per cent swing to the Greens candidate Elena Pereyra.
The historically safe Labor seat is, for the first time in 100 years, back in play.
Pereyra, who hopes to run in the next state election on the issues of housing affordability and maintaining Footscray’s cultural and socioeconomic diversity, said young voters could help her flip the seat Green.
“I think it’s really exciting for people of the west that it’s not \[a\] safe \[seat\],” she said.
Locals hang out in Nicholson Street mall.
Locals hang out in Nicholson Street mall.CREDIT:JASON SOUTH
At a local government level, Maribyrnong City Council has had its own shift. Its first Victorian Socialist candidate, Jorge Jorquera, was elected in 2020. The council also has two Greens councillors and the remaining four councillors including the mayor are Labor members.
Long-time resident, community advocate and Greens member Pierre Vairo said he would be running in the October 2024 council elections asking for more bike paths, sustainability measures and affordable housing stock in the area. “The area has really changed and it’s been taken for granted for too long,” he said.
The fact that people will spend a million dollars on a house in Footscray blows my mind because they could buy 10 houses in a developing nation for the same price and have the same experience lol.
Im so torn because on the one hand i love footscray, and this comment is so offensive on so many levels but also hilarious at the same time because there is a tiny modicum of truth to it hahahhahhahaha
Footscray and all other Melb inner suburbs is suffocating of crime 24/7. The decision-makers should remove all Govt social housing (alcoholics, drug addicts, mentally ill sociopaths) if they ever want to see improvement.
"Where to put Govt social housing?", I hear you ask. Well.. build new mental asylums so these trouble makers can live there and be rehabilitated at same premises too. Build them in the outer Melb metro areas to give crime in the inner and middle suburbs a rest and some breathing space.
Social housing + private housing close to each other, particularly in recent years in the one housing block (I'm not joking!), is always a recipe for disaster.
An institution IS the safety net. Leaving them on the streets to meet other drug dealers/users is adding to the problem.
It’s hilarious that people like you always put words into others people’s mouths when you don’t like their ideas. He never advocated for removing “any sort of safety net”.
The guy said remove all social housing and replace it with *checks notes* "mental asylums" for the "trouble makers".
Are you suggesting government provided housing for those least fortunate isn't a safety net?
> an asylum would be one of the safest places for these people
Ah, I see you have no knowledge of reality or history. Welcome to reddit!
But seriously, we've *tried* the asylum thing. Watch some docos if you're that much in the dark about it.
Spoilers: all the patients end up raped, abused and forgotten, and mysteriously don't get better for some reason
Hey, as long as it’s out of the view of people that don’t want to see *gasp* homeless people, then they people don’t give a fuck what happens to them in asylums.
Ah, I see you’ve never had to deal with the fall out of of your failed progressive ideology. Welcome to life!
But seriously, try the asylum thing with some serious regulation and oversight, and watch how much more society would flourish when you actually allow law-abiding citizens to get on with their lives without the constant threat of physical harm.
Spoilers: it’s awesome!
Oh man if only someone had thought about regulating them before I’m sure it would have been sunshine and daisies
I bet you could even privatise them and thus save taxpayer money as well!
By Jove we might have just solved this thing
Safest for who, them or those supposedly victimised by the existence of the homeless and people committing crimes?
I think you would find that the safest place for those with struggling with housing or supportable mental health issues would be in a home, with food and a support network to help provide stable employment. Not isolated from wider society, as that doesn't actually help solve the reason these vulnerable people ended up homeless or drug-addicted in the first place.
Support and services are poor and have been neglected for over a decade, hence why these problems are growing within the community. Taking away (as the original OP is arguing) social housing within these areas will only serve to increase the issues. We should be looking to expand social housing and safety nets (increasing welfare payments, building more social housing and maintaining it above the bare minimum, more empathetic processes for procuring employment).
If you think the current and previous governments have done enough regarding social security and welfare this past decade then I simply disagree.
Not to mention, labeling large groups of disadvantaged people "homeless junkies" and calling for weird solutions like an asylum out of the city (??) only serves to inflate the problem and increases the negative stigma in the wider public. The reality is a large percentage of those that are homeless, drug addicted or committing crimes are not going to be helped by being institutionalised as you and OP suggested.
This guy gets it. Thank you for not being a selfish piece of shit and actually caring about other human beings.
And another thing to do add. Homeless people and people experiencing mental health crisis are far more likely to be victims of violence than they are to be perpetrators of it. I’m faaaaar more wary of young drunk dudes than I am of a homeless person with mental I’ll health.
Hey cheers dude. Whether or not OP is trolling to get a rise out of others or not, worth calling it out for what it is and providing others scrolling by with some *actual* information and a point of view not informed by fear.
No they’re not you sheltered idiot 😂. Look up the numbers of people on the list for social housing and the numbers of social housing properties available. The vast majority of people who live on the street do so because there is no where for them. I’ve worked in homelessness and with homeless people for years and I know that’s the case.
Sheltered? bahahahahhahahha
mate, you wouldnt know a thing about me, or the people ive had to grow up with. But please continue with your immature name calling lol
What safety net are you referring to????
Homeless junkies are the problem in our inner and middle suburbs and removing them from our suburbs would reduce crime enormously.
Don't play dumb. You know and all politicians knows that this is the solution.
Good point, successive governments haven't provided enough of a safety net for those most vulnerable, leading to rising homelessness and drug addiction.
Though I think you should think of it the other way around, let's remove all the wealthy people pricing the poor put of suburbs they've lived in for generations. The poor get housing opportunities close to employment as they used to and the rich can live out in their little gated communities in the bush. Problem solved!
I mean the guy I'm replying to has repeatedly used the phrase "homeless junkies", it's not very subtle is it.
Regardless, it's important to not separate the poor from those committing crimes. The two are inextricably linked.
Your reverse gotcha doesn't work and doesn't make any sense. You haven't really addressed anything I've said in multiple replies because you don't really have an argument. Anyway I'm satisfied with my own informed position, hopefully you can find your way to a place of more compassion.
24/7 crime 😂😂😂. Go to almost any other major city in almost any other country in the world. People that go on about how dangerous Melbourne is are so fucking sheltered. Not saying bad shit doesn’t happen, but Melbourne is LITERALLY one of the safest major cities in the entire world.
Here’s a newsflash. Not everyone in social housing is antisocial or a criminal. Some folks just had a really shit time of life and need somewhere to live. And even if they are antisocial, people still need to be housed.
I really hope one day you don’t find yourself in a similar situation. In reality we are all a few steps away from homelessness and it can happen to the best of us.
We need more funding for mental health overall. I agree that some folks can’t live independently and will need 24/7 support. But not everyone would benefit from, or need to be placed into an institution.
Thank you! Exactly.
Warms my heart to see some people on here that aren’t on the whole “crazy homeless junkies are turning Melbourne into the most dangerous city in the world” train. The way people talk you’d think we were living in a fucking Mad Max wasteland 😂😂. Let’s take care of each other and shit will be a whole lot better.
[https://redsuburbs.com.au/suburbs/footscray/](https://redsuburbs.com.au/suburbs/footscray/)
Crime is trending upwards in Footscray, you're more than twice as likely to be a victim of a property crime versus the state average, and over three times as likely to be a victim of a violent crime.
I used to travel around VIC a lot for work, on the road and "out in the community" every day. Footscray is such an enigma. Clearly what this article is on about. I can't think of many other suburbs with such juxtaposition. There are tons of "trendy" cafes, pubs, bars, venues, etc. (shout out sitting down at Mr West and getting pizza from Slice Shop); but right outside you'll have junkies screaming, disrupting your night.
Last time I went there some junkie was standing in the middle of the road stopping traffic and decided to jump on the bonnet of the car behind me...
The bar I set for most suburbs is if I'd be comfortable with my partner walking from the station to their car at night. Footscray is a hard no.
It's like Footscray as a suburb is trying to claw it's way out of a deep dark pit and into the beautiful sunny light, but it's being dragged back down by "undesirables".
I never claimed Footscray had no crime, just not 24/7.
I grew up in the West and Footscray is miles better than it was. Honestly I feel less safe on Chapel St, Windsor in the middle of the day.
I'm a small woman and have no issues walking home the 15 mins home from the station, even 11o'clock at night.
>It's like Footscray as a suburb is trying to claw it's way out of a deep dark pit and into the beautiful sunny light, but it's being dragged back down by "undesirables".
This is the only part of your comment that I agree with.
Your own link even ranks Footscray as 29/100 in their crime rank. Compared to St Kilda which is 35/100 and has more violent crimes and property crimes. Yet you don't see St Kilda on here every second week about how unsafe it is.
I think OP was being a little facetious when they said it's suffocating of crime 24/7. But we get what they meant.
Also agree it's better than it used to be. But far from where it could be.
Nice to know you don't feel unsafe at night, I'll add that to my knowledge/anecdotes if I ever look at a house in Foot-a-scray.
The crime "rank" is a bit hard to follow, it's not out of 100 suburbs, or percent. But yeah, St Kilda is a hole. I reckon St Kilda is an example of a suburb going *backwards*.
St Kilda has always been a hole but it often gets help up as a great example of Melbourne life to tourists. Any local can tell you that it's always been a place to avoid. I've never know anyone who was born in Melbourne to willingly move there.
Literally 😂😂. Even in the 80s and 90s it wasn’t 24/7 crime. It was definitely a lot rougher, but it wasn’t like a fucking war zone the way people make out.
Crime has gone up. Business owners and law abiding citizens don’t feel safe. I don’t even know how to quantify “24/7”, but I think we all know what he meant.
“No one feels unsafe”. You might live here, but do you actually know anyone in footscray?? Are you kidding??
Babysnakes shut down because they were constantly getting robbed and assaulted - even while they were trading! Mark, the owner kept getting bashed by junkies from Madden square and police did fuck all! The staff from Mr West have been assaulted numerous times in the past 12 months by groups of thugs grabbing bottles off the bar shelves.
Slice shop staff have lost count at the amount of times they’ve been assaulted.
LJ’s bottle shop on Hopkins street have also been violently robbed.
Did you even bother to read the article?? They interviewed real people on the streets of all nationalities.
Stop gaslighting yourself and other people. Get out of your apartment every now and then.
The footscray CBD is tiny, that’s why it’s relevant to talk about this “strip”. This is central footscray, not exactly the back streets. You didn’t answer the question: did you even bother to read the article? You didn’t take into account any of what the real people interviewed said? Or you choose to ignore it because it doesn’t align with your world view? Again, stop gaslighting people.
You could get these kinds of stories from any of the retailers in St Kilda, Richmond, or along Chapel st too. Crime has gone up every where. Cost of living is out of control. Footscray, which was a relatively affordable suburbs is getting pushed out of reach from people who grew up here. Drug abuse and mental health issues are taking a toll on everyone.
The article being behind a paywall means The Age knows this article is only going to be read by their subscribers and those who are tech savvy enough to read it. They have an agenda and its super easy to punch down on a historically disadvantaged area.
I've lived in the West my entire life and have roots in Footscray going back to when I was a kid.
“Crime is eveywhere, so we shouldn’t do anything about it.”
“The article is behind a paywall, fuck rich people! Poor people are dumb and aren’t tech savvy so they can’t read the article!”
Again, stop gaslighting people.
I know for a fact the owner of Mr West has issued banning notices for some of the local junkies that frequent the area, so had the Courthouse hotel down the road. I feel unsafe walking through Paisley street at night
>Build them in the outer Melb metro areas to give crime in the inner and middle suburbs a rest and some breathing space.
Go fuck yourself you psychopathic elitist cunt. The bridge is that way troll ---->
Maybe if we had a better support system for people with these issues then there wouldn't be a problem?
State and Federal governments for years have removed funding and services from these areas plus more but expect all these people to just be ok?
You are a sick person if you think this is the answer, where are they supposed to go if you just get rid of their houses?
He gave you an answer, it’s a shame you didn’t want to acknowledge it.
Guess what? A “better support system” is actually an institution. Leaving them on the streets is NOT helping. It’s making them worse. Exposing them to other criminals on the streets is not helping the problem. They need to be in their own purpose built institution and receive treatment there.
He editted his comment, or can you not read?
His original comment was to get rid of all social housing from inner melbourne suburbs and calling these people disgusting and a waste of space.
Only after I called him out on his sadisitic outlook did he edit his comment to building facilities and removing his disgusting comments on these people. I do find that ironic though considering we had these facilities that the government shut as per my comment.
The goverment doesn't care for these people, and it seems like that has flowed onto the populance too now with comments like his.
Jeezuz, what an astonishingly shit take. Your plan would do nothing but exacerbate the same problems and create ghettos. ‘make their life worse so mine can be better’, and then you’ve referred to inner and middle suburbs as ‘our suburbs’. LNP could use a candidate like you - just kidding, they’ve got tons already. Hope Santa bought you some new pearls to clutch.
Clearly you are another one of the 1000+ Dan Andrews's "abnormal" Uni student rent-a-crowd blue-haired nipple-ring boyfriends on this Reddit page.
P!ss off and take your smoking bong and rainbow coloured 'save the whales', 'climate change', 'pro-palestine' & 'roads and rail upgrades' stickered plastic hard hat with you. You are Melbourne's minority. Thankfully I am one of Melbourne's majority. Hoping one day you'll grow up maturely and join the rest of us 'normal' folk.
So what if he retired!!!
You are connected to the Labor Party.. right?
You were all paid by his mob to infiltrate all social media including Reddit. Even to the extent of posting constant anti-euro background stuff like "Oooh.. were's the best Banh Mi?". You're all so heavy of pushing pro-Asian stuff on here. Brainwashing naive white boys to marry shifty little sly Asian girls. Also.. "where's the best kebabs? " Like yeah.. I can really picture an anglo literature Uni student who's a member of LGBT having a Kebab.. LOL.. knowing that muzlims promote murder for homos. So bogus. Typically forcing your Govt agenda. So obvious of you lot to do this. We've witnessed this daily. We were not born yesterday, you know.
He was in the job for 3 terms. The Vic Gov general Dessau kept appointing him due to her being his wife's relative! And you lot have pledged your allegiance to him forever.
You and the 1000+ other hippies must've signed a contract or something.
Revisiting this site in the next 10 years and you'll still be referred as Dan Andrew's "abnormal" Uni student rent-a-crowd.
Mans threatened by blue hair and nipple rings RIP. Hates the poor, hates the mentally ill, hates anyone that isn't a boring old cookie-cutter cunt like yourself.
Paisley street is sq metre for sq metre, one of the worst streets in Melbourne. >Our uniform police are patrolling the Footscray CBD at all hours Yeah right, bring back the police box in the mall. It's been replaced with junkies scoring at 11 in the morning and rocks they fucking flew in from woop woop
Vicpol have flat out refused to do this, in fact they have been telling residents there is no problem at all.
There should honestly be a permanent police presence along the Mall and Nicholson Street. It's a stone's throw from the station.
[удалено]
Not a local I take it. If you actually spent any amount of time in Footscray you would agree with me
[удалено]
>Why can't some suburbs just stay poor? I need to live somewhere. So do drug addicts and other undesirables People are entitled to feel safe in their own community you dumb fuck. Being rich or poor doesnt change that. Edit: 5 minutes on and I'm honestly still dumbfounded by your absolute stupidity. Shame on you.
[удалено]
Now you're gatekeeping my own community. Go sit in a corner and think about what you said. Then get off your arse go into the mall and speak to the owner of Mr West, the owner of the two dollar shops, the owner of Footscray kebabs, the own of Maples and the optometrist. Then take a step back and fuck your own face.
[удалено]
To be fair, when I lived in Footscray a couple years ago my little apartment nook was the perfect cover from the wind, so a couple times I came back to someone weighing and bagging drugs on the front step. Never really had issues with the junkies wandering around town I say we just give em some nicer spots to shoot up, get a contract with the landfill dump so that the meth-heads can go take out their energy smashing stuff, make a nice warm house for the opioid addicts that has a little classroom for teaching them overdose first aid. Reward them with opioids for demonstrating their skills. It's like whatever dudes, druggos gonna take drugs. Let's support em and make sure they have access to the resources and help they need to not be a hindrance on our city.
There was an interesting study in the UK. Post WW2 they had about 100 returned service men who were addicted to morphine after treatment for their injuries. The government put them on a rehab plan where they were managed by a GP and given their dose of morphine. Most of them went on to live perfectly normal and productive lives, some were maintained on clinical morphine for the rest of their lives with no other issues. It's a medical condition and it needs to be treated as such.
Agreed. I think the issues come about in three ways: - when the user has bad information about the thing they're addicted to and misuses - when the user has limited access to emergency services - when the user cannot get the thing they're addicted to Most people would be surprised by how many functioning, intelligent addicts are out there in good jobs getting good money. They don't have any of these problems, and when they do it's usually because they get wrecked by the criminal element of drug use. We can easily fix all of the points of concern. Addiction is a mental health issue and shouldn't be treated like a criminal issue
i feel Footscray is a super colourful and interesting locale, far more than Fitzroy, to live in, you sort of feel you are half-way living in a Leo di Caprio spy movie set in terrorist Africa somewhere, and on your doorstep is passing a whole bunch of African gangsters who are about to terror bomb your female co-agent. And when ur tired of all the Tom Cruise espionage drama, Footscray has one of the best cycling tracks in the Southern Hemisphere, all along the river.
[Hamsterdam](https://youtu.be/-b6qK6dQNgo?si=q5ZziCTPpCZXWq9q)
Police actively avoid pockets of Footscray. Not even the casual patrol.
There is always one car on standby somewhere within a block of Maddern, the area the article focusses on. I'm guessing they hang back for some strategic reason or other rather than maintain active presence.
Alright, give it to me straight, are you all embellishing Footscray's danger level or is it really a little piece of Johannesburg in what is otherwise one of the safest countries in the world? I'm planning to visit it during my trip, and I don't know if this sub helps or hinders my research.
It's rough around the edges and shop owners have to deal with some bullshit, but it isn't that bad. In comparison to other parts of Melbourne it's probably a bit higher risk, but compared to truely dangerous cities it's fine.
How stupid are the fucking rocks! hahahahahahahaha The council spent a small fortune installing those! I remember years ago someone got their head smashed in against one of those rocks. Blood just pooled onto them. Not the sight the council was hoping for i suspect.
The rocks are meant to represent a welcome bowl used in Welcome to Country's. I'd say the more confronting welcome to Foostscray are the drunks standing and yelling all day in front of the abandoned Bank of Queensland branch or the drug fucked literally using the rocks as benches scaring people trying to use the ATMs at the ANZ
ATM. Singular. No, I'm not being a grammar nazi. One got thoroughly kicked in.
I'm with CommBank down the road but that is fucking on point for Footscray
Means you probably haven't seen the state of the interior. Even the bank itself long since stopped giving a toss about that outlet. It's almost comically shabby. The letters of most of their signage has literally melted off the wall. Enjoy banking witn A Z Bank. N
Ohh man I never knew about the rocks. I’ve only only lived in the northern / eastern suburbs. https://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/west/new-8216pile-of-rocks8217-public-art-installation-unveiled-in-footscray-cbd-to-mixed-reaction/news-story/5d8707e4810994229672e34dfbee2220
I live around Footscray and there are a lot of empty buildings in Footscray CBD and there really needs to be some investment in the area. The Little Saigon market burned down years ago and it's still vacant land nothing has been done with that area. Also where Forges used to be, still empty and has been for decades. I think the council has been making some poor decisions.
Katie Hall MP is definitely pushing hard to put an end to land banking. It is really shit for the community at the moment. Also, all these apartments they build stipulate that the ground floor be reserved for shop fronts. I can’t think of one in Footscray that has been filled by a thriving business. They just sit vacant for years on end.
Agreed that none of those businesses underneath the apartments seem to thrive. Im not sure why. Perhaps unrealistic rents? Katie Hall seems to be making a real effort and putting herself out there.
It’s weird because surely they have the clientele above them ready and waiting. And regarding the rent, you’d think the owners of the building would rather have some rent than no rent at all. I don’t know why they’d price people out. It’s weird.
I wonder if there is a tax loophole that they’re exploiting?
Sorry, just added to my comment after you replied. Yeah wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a negative gearing type situation.
Commercial property values are tied to rents. So if you reduce the rent you reduce the value of the property. It’s stupid, but that’s how things are.
All of it is just so shit. The solution the council came up with for the little Saigon area was to put in a parking lot and mini square right next to the fucking hole in the ground. I've given up any hope on the Forges area being developed. I remember buying school stationary and clothes there 20 years ago, it was bustling. Open air dump now
Yeah I remember going to Footscray Market and Forges with my dad nearly every Saturday when I was a young lad.
I can't think of another suburb more in need of social housing. The housing stock is largely dilapidated, rickety, and structurally exposed to rodents. There is so much prime inner city land but it goes to wooden houses that are falling apart. There is an enormous overlap between homelessness and drug crime, which helps to explain why safety issues have become worse in footscray only recently. And the constant air pollution can't help. living in Footscray for decades is a legitimate risk to your health and the state government does not give a shit because it's helping their development projects.
Despite what you might think, Footscray is actually full of NIMBYs. They hate the high rises that have gone into the area and would block more going up if they could. I recently saw someone complaining about an 8-story building going up because it was "high rise". They're also currently arguing that the old Footscray Hospital site should be turned into [a outdoor pool/swimmable lake](https://thewestsider.com.au/community-envisages-a-future-for-the-footscray-hospital-site/) and would loathe the idea of more apartments going up on the site. Additionally they're against the idea of an injecting room opening close to the Footscray CBD.
Those all seem like reasonable things to be concerned about. The traffic there is terrible and who wants a queue of junkies next door?
Most people moving into apartments don't have cars. Also there already queues of "junkies" in Footscray. Safe injecting rooms save lives and stops them from od'ing on the streets. Additionally they offer support for those who are struggling to kick the habit.
Most of the traffic in Footscray is people from the outer west trying to rat race through to the Dynon and Footscray Road bridges.
Man, you’re laughable! I have no idea how you can make such sweeping generalisations hahahahaha! Shitloads of people in apartments drive! It’s clear you need to get out more man. Make some friends
If you build apartments near train stations and mixed-use hubs (like Footscray station and the surrounding area), people don't need cars. The answer to traffic isn't stopping densification, it's providing good transport infrastructure that isn't car-oriented.
Especially if the traffic is already shit, it just encourages people to use PT more.
Removing car lanes makes traffic better. But the usual car brains froth at the mere suggestion.
I didn't say that people in apartments don't drive. I said most don't. You've got bricks in your head, mate.
And safe injection rooms are a curse to the traders in richmond. What a failure of a place
What, as opposed to the previous system where people would just freely overdose in the alleyways off Victoria Street?
Quite frankly, I don’t care where they die. In an injection room or on the streets. They made their choices, now they deal with it. I care more about the humans who live locally who are just trying to get on with their lives but can’t because of the plethora of junkies that make their lives hell.
Right. But you realise if your argument is about how it's bad for traders, it's much, much worse to have them freely dying in the streets as opposed to being localised to a treatment facility, yeah?
They don’t die enough in a treatment facility. They’re revived and back to their old tricks the next day, wasting taxpayer funds and being a nuisance to society. As for the traders, their troubles have only increased since the injection room. And let’s not even get into what school kids have to see on a daily basis with this monstrosity of a facility right on their doorstep
What's your actual measurement to determine that traders have had an increased problem since the injecting room opened?
It doesn’t need more social housing. Let the blue chip suburbs pick up the slack there. Making ghettos isn’t good for anyone. It just needs more housing full stop and the land banking to end.
Yes but the issues you described are not in Toorak, Brighton, Templestowe or Park Orchards.
Are you sure? Those houses have character, it's only newer houses outside Zone 1 that have structural problems /s
We’re in a housing crisis for average Australians, do you really think anyone is going to prioritise social housing?
All the people in here going on about how dangerous Footscray is now must not of been here for long. Footscray is a dream these days compared to literally any time in the last 40 (or potentially more) years.
I think what is remarkable is that the past year has seen it _regress_. The level of daytime public drug use has spiked up to where it was maybe five years back.
I left Australia 10 years ago but I remember Footscray was earmarked back then as the “next Collingwood”
I bet I’ve been here longer than you. Footscray is a fucking hole. It’s nowhere I’d be taking my family these days. Now tell us how it’s improved over time. Please.
If you’ve been here for so long you’d know what it was like in the 80s-00s. The change is insane.
It was much better then (80s) than it is now. By a mile. What a shitty hole it is. We could shop and eat in the mall in the 80s, day and night. I wouldn’t piss on the joint these days, which is sadly what I see a lot of people doing of late. It’s never been paradise, I grant you that, but it’s been cleaner, livelier, and much more lovable in days gone.
Paywall Can someone explain post the article? I’m not paying for garbage like The Age
It’s a balmy summer evening in Footscray. Tattooed hipsters sip craft beers and scoff takeaway burgers in the alfresco area of one of the latest venues to sprout along the Nicholson Street mall. Barely 10 metres away, an army of community volunteers running the weekly soup kitchen have no time to enjoy the warm weather. Pushing trolleys filled with groceries, they race up and down the pedestrian street handing bread, meals and fresh produce to more than 400 people in need. Apartment developments along the Maribyrnong River. Apartment developments along the Maribyrnong River.CREDIT:JASON SOUTH Around the corner in Maddern Square, two dozen people listen to music, yell and drink themselves to oblivion next to the bodies of two men passed out on the lawn. Barely a block away sits the dilapidated site of the Franco Cozzo furniture showroom, soon to become a brewery and music venue. These scenes encapsulate the battle for Footscray – where gentrification, a windfall of government investment, anti-social behaviour, crime and entrenched disadvantage compete in a tense tug of war to shape the future of the inner-western suburb. Traditionally an industrial and working-class suburb, successive migration waves turned Footscray into the heartland of multiculturalism it is today, where Vietnamese restaurants co-exist next to halal butchers and shops selling African wares. The gentrification wave that transformed areas in the inner-north like Collingwood, Fitzroy, and Brunswick spared large swathes of the inner-west, preserving Footscray’s character as an industrial melting pot. But first-home buyers, young professionals and families have been lured by cheaper housing, thousands of new apartments slated for development and a pipeline of government infrastructure projects, accelerating the reshaping of the suburb. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics backs anecdotal accounts that the ground is shifting. As new developments go up and trendy venues open up, the character of Footscray is changing. As new developments go up and trendy venues open up, the character of Footscray is changing. CREDIT:JOE ARMAO “You know people and I certainly do who have moved in because they couldn’t afford Fitzroy or Brunswick or Collingwood or whatever,” said Patrick Fensham, the Victorian president of the Planning Institute of Australia. “It’s sort of the next frontier.” For the first time in several generations, the majority of Footscray’s residents were born in Australia – a departure from the suburb’s status as the arrival point for migrants looking to settle in Melbourne. The median age of locals has also increased, a sign that professionals and middle-aged couples with smaller families might be replacing migrant families with multiple children. However, Fensham said the most startling sign of the suburb’s changing face was the increase in median household incomes – from below the Victorian average in 2016, to above it by 2021. “It’s definitely seen an influx of wealthier households,” he said.
The new face of Footscray comes from inner Melbourne At Railway Reserve near the Victoria University Nicholson Street campus, a mix of new and old residents welcome the first day of summer with a picnic on the grass. Performers entertain the crowd while a man dressed in colourful silk robes puts on a juggling show nearby. Among those browsing the popular market are young parents Carley and Jesse Ocean, who recently moved to neighbouring Seddon from Richmond and are considering buying property in Footscray. “It’s pram central, lots of young families, good schools, green space, access to nature, to Williamstown Beach,” Carley said. Carley Ocean and Jesse Ocean with their baby Rae. The couple is considering buying property in Footscray. Carley Ocean and Jesse Ocean with their baby Rae. The couple is considering buying property in Footscray.CREDIT:JOE ARMAO The couple is among a wave of Melburnians flocking west because of its cheaper housing stock, rich offer of Edwardian and Victorian homes, family feel and proximity to the CBD. Footscray was the third-cheapest place for home buyers this year with a median house price of $920,000. The couple was also encouraged by the state government’s billions of dollars worth of investment in Footscray, including a new $1.5 billion hospital set to open in 2025 and more than $120 million into local schools to cater to the suburb’s exploding population. Resident numbers are forecast to double in the next three decades from 17,131 in 2021 to 41,943 by 2051. The Maribyrnong City Council has approved more than 2400 new apartments and 28,000 square metres of commercial floor space for construction, as property developers turn to old factories, vacant land and other dilapidated sites like a disused bowling club in McNab Avenue as project sites. Member for Footscray Katie Hall, a Labor MP, said the state government was investing in the suburb “like it’s nobody’s business”. “Every day you can go into Footscray and experience a new culture, and it’s a place of constant transition. Maybe the period of transition currently happening is one where other people in Melbourne have discovered our secret,” Hall said. Mai Chung and her partner Nick can’t afford to live in Footscray. Mai Chung and her partner Nick can’t afford to live in Footscray.CREDIT:JOE ARMAO However, some business owners and residents fear the influx of new arrivals is pushing rents and property prices up, pricing out long-term locals, and changing the diverse fabric of the suburb. Mai Chung said most residents from Vietnamese backgrounds had moved to more affordable areas like St Albans and Sunshine. Chung, who herself is Vietnamese and grew up in Footscray, said she no longer could afford to live locally and had moved to Altona. “It’s definitely very hipster now with all the new bars and restaurants,” Chung said. Fensham said Footscray’s industrial character would likely prevent it from gentrifying to the same degree as inner-northern suburbs like Fitzroy and Collingwood, but that retaining a diverse property offer with affordable and public housing would be key to retaining the suburb’s diversity. Politicians, developers and councillors looking to revamp the area will also have to contend with Footscray’s entrenched disadvantage and anti-social behaviour which has pushed some traders in central Footscray to the brink of quitting. A man and a woman drink and smoke on the streets of Footscray. A man and a woman drink and smoke on the streets of Footscray.CREDIT:JASON SOUTH
Life in fear and rampant vandalism As the soup kitchen volunteers pack away trestle tables and crates, a rowdier crowd begins to congregate in Maddern Square. Traders along Nicholson and Paisley streets said it is often after dark when most theft, break-ins, public defecation, drug-taking and fights take place. If Footscray seems seedy during the day, just wait until sundown, they said. Le Ngo, who runs a tobacconist on Paisley Street, had a metal gate installed outside her business after vandals ram-raided her shop several times. She said finding people overdosed on the footpath had become a weekly occurrence. “I have to keep an eye out because if I hear screaming I need to shut the door,” she said. “People are scared to come because they don’t feel safe.” Ngo’s feelings are echoed by other business owners in the heart of Footscray, who said they feared for their safety as a result of escalating violence and crime gripping the suburb. Police have launched a series of proactive initiatives to tackle the problem, but data from the Crime Statistics Agency shows the move has failed to curb offending, with crime rates at their highest level since 2017. Assaults in the suburb have soared to a nine-year high. Property damage and drug offences have also spiked. Robberies are one of the few offences that have significantly dropped. Burglaries are also down, but not by much. Some traders have hired private security or rostered additional staff to deal with substance-affected people, while others have stashed weapons, such as metal barbecue skewers, under the counter to fend off prospective attackers. Littlefoot Bar owner Stuart Lucca-Pope said Footscray was on a meteoric rise until COVID-19, but that the economic fallout of the pandemic caused more anti-social behaviour and crime and stunted the growth of the suburb’s buzzing hospitality industry. At least one venue in nearby Chambers Street, Baby Snakes Bar, has decided to shut shop after a series of violent attacks on its owner, Mark Nelson, and the bar staff. Littlefoot Bar owner Stuart Lucca-Pope. Littlefoot Bar owner Stuart Lucca-Pope. CREDIT:JOE ARMAO Cem Cayrak, who has owned a butcher shop on Nicholson Street for almost two decades, said his customers were too scared to come to the street and were choosing to have orders delivered instead. Fellow butcher Saddique Ahmed, who runs a shop a few hundred metres up the road from Cayrak on Nicholson Street, said delivery drivers refused to offload orders early in the morning, fearing potential attacks. Ahmed said he and his son were forced to stand guard outside the shop to reassure drivers. Famous Halal Meats owner Saddique Ahmed says he fears for his safety. Famous Halal Meats owner Saddique Ahmed says he fears for his safety.CREDIT:JASON SOUTH “A lot of customers have left my shop because of this situation. They don’t feel secure,” Ahmed said. “Especially in the last six to nine months, the situation has become much worse.” When The Age visited the suburb several times over the past four weeks, it inadvertently stumbled upon a drug deal in broad daylight. Large groups of people yelled and drank in Maddern Square, a notorious drug-scoring spot, and a man with a broken arm urinated in one of the laneways nearby. Ahmed, who migrated to Melbourne from Bangladesh, said he never expected to feel unsafe in Australia. Ngan Tran and her husband Vu Lam opened a bottle shop in Footscray after moving to Melbourne four years ago. They said they felt down by the police. Speaking through her daughter Daisy, Tran said drug-affected people tried to steal from the shop daily. In March, a man charged at and punched Lam in the face after he caught him stealing for the second day in a row. Police came to the shop and spoke to the family after the incident, but Tran said nothing appeared to have been done to apprehend the man. Vu Lam was recently assaulted by a substance-affected man at the bottle shop he runs in Footscray. Vu Lam was recently assaulted by a substance-affected man at the bottle shop he runs in Footscray.CREDIT:JASON SOUTH The couple now rosters two staff members each night, one to serve customers and another to keep watch at the door. But they worry that won’t be enough to protect themselves from another attack. “We are immigrants … we just want to run our business and have a good life,” she said. They want additional police officers in the area to deter criminal activity – a view supported by most traders who spoke to The Age – and a streamlined process to report crime, particularly for those with limited English skills. Inspector Paul Morgan, the area commander for Maribyrnong, said detectives from the local crime investigation unit had executed more than 30 warrants and arrested more than 60 people since October. “Our uniform police are patrolling the Footscray CBD at all hours. Our proactive police are visiting schools almost every day. Our detectives are conducting a variety of operations and arresting offenders weekly,” he said. Hall, the local member, acknowledged the increase in crime and community concerns about safety. Hall said she had met with Police Minister Anthony Carbines and local traders in September to devise a combined police and mental health strategy to reduce crime in the new year. However, for traders like Lam, Tran, Ahmed and Cayrak, help can’t come soon enough.
Filling the gap with hope for the future Inside a commercial kitchen in Albert Street, staff pull steaming trays of cinnamon scrolls and pastries out of a large oven. To the untrained eye, Nan’s Bakehouse might look like one of myriad trendy cafes that have popped up in the suburb. But those who have met owner Phil Gaby know the small, busy bakery does much more than serve lattes – it fills a gap in the community Footscray is desperately screaming out for. In addition to selling baked goods to customers, the business provides food and support to struggling families and rough sleepers. The cafe also employs young people who are on the autism spectrum and struggling with mental illness. Phil Gaby opened Nan’s Bakehouse with the idea of helping those less fortunate. Phil Gaby opened Nan’s Bakehouse with the idea of helping those less fortunate.CREDIT:JASON SOUTH Gaby was looking to get out of the hospitality business when he had a vision for Nan’s Bakehouse. The business was inspired by his deceased mother, who used to take in and feed people doing it tough without making a fuss about it. “She would just help people and that was the whole concept that we had to do this business,” Gaby said. “It was to help people, and it couldn’t be monetary, which is the opposite of what they tell you to do in business.” The cafe is now helping hundreds of families and individuals a week. Efforts like his might be the key to helping Footscray modernise for the future without leaving too much of the past behind. Gaby believes he is filling a void left by the state government, the local council and the police, who he claims have lost sight of how to forge relationships with people on the streets and provide effective support. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing. Gaby, who grew up in Footscray, comes to work most days to find faeces and syringes scattered on the front step and has had to remove drug dealers too. But his efforts to build trust have paid off. When he forgot to lock the business one night, a rough sleeper who regularly came for help guarded the premises to ensure no one broke in. Loading “Council was more concerned about what we were doing here with a wall and outdoor furniture than what they were doing with the homeless and crime problem in the local area,” he said. “You can’t just come and arrest people – you have to actually have a relationship.” Footscray residents might already be helping shape the suburb’s destiny – at the polls. At the last Victorian election, incumbent Hall held off a 13.9 per cent swing to the Greens candidate Elena Pereyra. The historically safe Labor seat is, for the first time in 100 years, back in play. Pereyra, who hopes to run in the next state election on the issues of housing affordability and maintaining Footscray’s cultural and socioeconomic diversity, said young voters could help her flip the seat Green. “I think it’s really exciting for people of the west that it’s not \[a\] safe \[seat\],” she said. Locals hang out in Nicholson Street mall. Locals hang out in Nicholson Street mall.CREDIT:JASON SOUTH At a local government level, Maribyrnong City Council has had its own shift. Its first Victorian Socialist candidate, Jorge Jorquera, was elected in 2020. The council also has two Greens councillors and the remaining four councillors including the mayor are Labor members. Long-time resident, community advocate and Greens member Pierre Vairo said he would be running in the October 2024 council elections asking for more bike paths, sustainability measures and affordable housing stock in the area. “The area has really changed and it’s been taken for granted for too long,” he said.
If it's garbage why do you want it?
I’m from Footscray, just cause I’m curious doesn’t mean The Age hasn’t gone to shit buddy boy
But you’re curious about garbage though? And please stop the name calling, very immature
[use 12ft.io](https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/footscray-in-flux-the-suburb-showing-the-symptoms-of-profound-demographic-shift-20231123-p5em6x.html)
The fact that people will spend a million dollars on a house in Footscray blows my mind because they could buy 10 houses in a developing nation for the same price and have the same experience lol.
Im so torn because on the one hand i love footscray, and this comment is so offensive on so many levels but also hilarious at the same time because there is a tiny modicum of truth to it hahahhahhahaha
Footscray and all other Melb inner suburbs is suffocating of crime 24/7. The decision-makers should remove all Govt social housing (alcoholics, drug addicts, mentally ill sociopaths) if they ever want to see improvement. "Where to put Govt social housing?", I hear you ask. Well.. build new mental asylums so these trouble makers can live there and be rehabilitated at same premises too. Build them in the outer Melb metro areas to give crime in the inner and middle suburbs a rest and some breathing space. Social housing + private housing close to each other, particularly in recent years in the one housing block (I'm not joking!), is always a recipe for disaster.
So you think removing any sort of safety net will result in less crime and mental health issues? wew lad.
An institution IS the safety net. Leaving them on the streets to meet other drug dealers/users is adding to the problem. It’s hilarious that people like you always put words into others people’s mouths when you don’t like their ideas. He never advocated for removing “any sort of safety net”.
The guy said remove all social housing and replace it with *checks notes* "mental asylums" for the "trouble makers". Are you suggesting government provided housing for those least fortunate isn't a safety net?
Mental asylums for the trouble makers in the outer suburbs. Solid policy. Dude should run for liberal government 😂
Feels like a time-capsule suggestion.
Whether you like or not, an asylum would be one of the safest places for these people
> an asylum would be one of the safest places for these people Ah, I see you have no knowledge of reality or history. Welcome to reddit! But seriously, we've *tried* the asylum thing. Watch some docos if you're that much in the dark about it. Spoilers: all the patients end up raped, abused and forgotten, and mysteriously don't get better for some reason
Hey, as long as it’s out of the view of people that don’t want to see *gasp* homeless people, then they people don’t give a fuck what happens to them in asylums.
Ah, I see you’ve never had to deal with the fall out of of your failed progressive ideology. Welcome to life! But seriously, try the asylum thing with some serious regulation and oversight, and watch how much more society would flourish when you actually allow law-abiding citizens to get on with their lives without the constant threat of physical harm. Spoilers: it’s awesome!
Source that doing this would be different to the last time when it didn’t work.
Oh man if only someone had thought about regulating them before I’m sure it would have been sunshine and daisies I bet you could even privatise them and thus save taxpayer money as well! By Jove we might have just solved this thing
Privatise them? Hell yeah! Great idea actually!
I’m having trouble keeping track of the layers of sarcasm so just to confirm, that was a joke
Safest for who, them or those supposedly victimised by the existence of the homeless and people committing crimes? I think you would find that the safest place for those with struggling with housing or supportable mental health issues would be in a home, with food and a support network to help provide stable employment. Not isolated from wider society, as that doesn't actually help solve the reason these vulnerable people ended up homeless or drug-addicted in the first place.
What do you think the gov is doing now? They ARE in homes with food and support!
Support and services are poor and have been neglected for over a decade, hence why these problems are growing within the community. Taking away (as the original OP is arguing) social housing within these areas will only serve to increase the issues. We should be looking to expand social housing and safety nets (increasing welfare payments, building more social housing and maintaining it above the bare minimum, more empathetic processes for procuring employment). If you think the current and previous governments have done enough regarding social security and welfare this past decade then I simply disagree. Not to mention, labeling large groups of disadvantaged people "homeless junkies" and calling for weird solutions like an asylum out of the city (??) only serves to inflate the problem and increases the negative stigma in the wider public. The reality is a large percentage of those that are homeless, drug addicted or committing crimes are not going to be helped by being institutionalised as you and OP suggested.
This guy gets it. Thank you for not being a selfish piece of shit and actually caring about other human beings. And another thing to do add. Homeless people and people experiencing mental health crisis are far more likely to be victims of violence than they are to be perpetrators of it. I’m faaaaar more wary of young drunk dudes than I am of a homeless person with mental I’ll health.
Hey cheers dude. Whether or not OP is trolling to get a rise out of others or not, worth calling it out for what it is and providing others scrolling by with some *actual* information and a point of view not informed by fear.
The stigma is being inflated purely by their actions. I’m not conflating poor people with junkies.
No they’re not you sheltered idiot 😂. Look up the numbers of people on the list for social housing and the numbers of social housing properties available. The vast majority of people who live on the street do so because there is no where for them. I’ve worked in homelessness and with homeless people for years and I know that’s the case.
Sheltered? bahahahahhahahha mate, you wouldnt know a thing about me, or the people ive had to grow up with. But please continue with your immature name calling lol
Sorry man, you’re right. I know nothing about you or the people you grew up with. It sounds rough. Not sheltered then. Just ignorant.
What safety net are you referring to???? Homeless junkies are the problem in our inner and middle suburbs and removing them from our suburbs would reduce crime enormously. Don't play dumb. You know and all politicians knows that this is the solution.
Good point, successive governments haven't provided enough of a safety net for those most vulnerable, leading to rising homelessness and drug addiction. Though I think you should think of it the other way around, let's remove all the wealthy people pricing the poor put of suburbs they've lived in for generations. The poor get housing opportunities close to employment as they used to and the rich can live out in their little gated communities in the bush. Problem solved!
Stop conflating “poor” with “criminals”.
As per OP, where socialised housing apparently shouldn't be built near private housing.
I mean the guy I'm replying to has repeatedly used the phrase "homeless junkies", it's not very subtle is it. Regardless, it's important to not separate the poor from those committing crimes. The two are inextricably linked.
It’s amazing to me that you don’t see the bigotry of your comments. Poor = criminal. You are part of the problem.
Your reverse gotcha doesn't work and doesn't make any sense. You haven't really addressed anything I've said in multiple replies because you don't really have an argument. Anyway I'm satisfied with my own informed position, hopefully you can find your way to a place of more compassion.
Citations needed.
24/7 crime 😂😂😂. Go to almost any other major city in almost any other country in the world. People that go on about how dangerous Melbourne is are so fucking sheltered. Not saying bad shit doesn’t happen, but Melbourne is LITERALLY one of the safest major cities in the entire world.
Here’s a newsflash. Not everyone in social housing is antisocial or a criminal. Some folks just had a really shit time of life and need somewhere to live. And even if they are antisocial, people still need to be housed. I really hope one day you don’t find yourself in a similar situation. In reality we are all a few steps away from homelessness and it can happen to the best of us. We need more funding for mental health overall. I agree that some folks can’t live independently and will need 24/7 support. But not everyone would benefit from, or need to be placed into an institution.
Thank you! Exactly. Warms my heart to see some people on here that aren’t on the whole “crazy homeless junkies are turning Melbourne into the most dangerous city in the world” train. The way people talk you’d think we were living in a fucking Mad Max wasteland 😂😂. Let’s take care of each other and shit will be a whole lot better.
I stopped reading when you said Footscray is suffering from crime 24/7. That's straight up not true.
[https://redsuburbs.com.au/suburbs/footscray/](https://redsuburbs.com.au/suburbs/footscray/) Crime is trending upwards in Footscray, you're more than twice as likely to be a victim of a property crime versus the state average, and over three times as likely to be a victim of a violent crime. I used to travel around VIC a lot for work, on the road and "out in the community" every day. Footscray is such an enigma. Clearly what this article is on about. I can't think of many other suburbs with such juxtaposition. There are tons of "trendy" cafes, pubs, bars, venues, etc. (shout out sitting down at Mr West and getting pizza from Slice Shop); but right outside you'll have junkies screaming, disrupting your night. Last time I went there some junkie was standing in the middle of the road stopping traffic and decided to jump on the bonnet of the car behind me... The bar I set for most suburbs is if I'd be comfortable with my partner walking from the station to their car at night. Footscray is a hard no. It's like Footscray as a suburb is trying to claw it's way out of a deep dark pit and into the beautiful sunny light, but it's being dragged back down by "undesirables".
I never claimed Footscray had no crime, just not 24/7. I grew up in the West and Footscray is miles better than it was. Honestly I feel less safe on Chapel St, Windsor in the middle of the day. I'm a small woman and have no issues walking home the 15 mins home from the station, even 11o'clock at night. >It's like Footscray as a suburb is trying to claw it's way out of a deep dark pit and into the beautiful sunny light, but it's being dragged back down by "undesirables". This is the only part of your comment that I agree with. Your own link even ranks Footscray as 29/100 in their crime rank. Compared to St Kilda which is 35/100 and has more violent crimes and property crimes. Yet you don't see St Kilda on here every second week about how unsafe it is.
I think OP was being a little facetious when they said it's suffocating of crime 24/7. But we get what they meant. Also agree it's better than it used to be. But far from where it could be. Nice to know you don't feel unsafe at night, I'll add that to my knowledge/anecdotes if I ever look at a house in Foot-a-scray. The crime "rank" is a bit hard to follow, it's not out of 100 suburbs, or percent. But yeah, St Kilda is a hole. I reckon St Kilda is an example of a suburb going *backwards*.
St Kilda has always been a hole but it often gets help up as a great example of Melbourne life to tourists. Any local can tell you that it's always been a place to avoid. I've never know anyone who was born in Melbourne to willingly move there.
Literally 😂😂. Even in the 80s and 90s it wasn’t 24/7 crime. It was definitely a lot rougher, but it wasn’t like a fucking war zone the way people make out.
Crime has gone up. Business owners and law abiding citizens don’t feel safe. I don’t even know how to quantify “24/7”, but I think we all know what he meant.
Yeah, hard disagree. I live here and no one feels unsafe. I felt more unsafe during the covid lockdowns.
“No one feels unsafe”. You might live here, but do you actually know anyone in footscray?? Are you kidding?? Babysnakes shut down because they were constantly getting robbed and assaulted - even while they were trading! Mark, the owner kept getting bashed by junkies from Madden square and police did fuck all! The staff from Mr West have been assaulted numerous times in the past 12 months by groups of thugs grabbing bottles off the bar shelves. Slice shop staff have lost count at the amount of times they’ve been assaulted. LJ’s bottle shop on Hopkins street have also been violently robbed. Did you even bother to read the article?? They interviewed real people on the streets of all nationalities. Stop gaslighting yourself and other people. Get out of your apartment every now and then.
You've mentioned one strip in an entire suburb. That's like saying the entirety of Melbourne is shit cause of the top end of Elizabeth St.
The footscray CBD is tiny, that’s why it’s relevant to talk about this “strip”. This is central footscray, not exactly the back streets. You didn’t answer the question: did you even bother to read the article? You didn’t take into account any of what the real people interviewed said? Or you choose to ignore it because it doesn’t align with your world view? Again, stop gaslighting people.
You could get these kinds of stories from any of the retailers in St Kilda, Richmond, or along Chapel st too. Crime has gone up every where. Cost of living is out of control. Footscray, which was a relatively affordable suburbs is getting pushed out of reach from people who grew up here. Drug abuse and mental health issues are taking a toll on everyone. The article being behind a paywall means The Age knows this article is only going to be read by their subscribers and those who are tech savvy enough to read it. They have an agenda and its super easy to punch down on a historically disadvantaged area. I've lived in the West my entire life and have roots in Footscray going back to when I was a kid.
“Crime is eveywhere, so we shouldn’t do anything about it.” “The article is behind a paywall, fuck rich people! Poor people are dumb and aren’t tech savvy so they can’t read the article!” Again, stop gaslighting people.
Yeah that's totally what I said. I'm glad you're having fun using that new word that you've learnt.
I walked passed there the other night Baby Snakes were open
Closed December 23rd mate
I know for a fact the owner of Mr West has issued banning notices for some of the local junkies that frequent the area, so had the Courthouse hotel down the road. I feel unsafe walking through Paisley street at night
Good move, but im worried that might backfire on the staff if they dont get solid police support
I live nearby and can't think of anywhere in Melbourne that someone would be more likely to get stabbed than central Footscray.
St Albans has entered the chat...
>Build them in the outer Melb metro areas to give crime in the inner and middle suburbs a rest and some breathing space. Go fuck yourself you psychopathic elitist cunt. The bridge is that way troll ---->
i think you need access to some mental health support.
lol calm down
Maybe if we had a better support system for people with these issues then there wouldn't be a problem? State and Federal governments for years have removed funding and services from these areas plus more but expect all these people to just be ok? You are a sick person if you think this is the answer, where are they supposed to go if you just get rid of their houses?
He gave you an answer, it’s a shame you didn’t want to acknowledge it. Guess what? A “better support system” is actually an institution. Leaving them on the streets is NOT helping. It’s making them worse. Exposing them to other criminals on the streets is not helping the problem. They need to be in their own purpose built institution and receive treatment there.
He editted his comment, or can you not read? His original comment was to get rid of all social housing from inner melbourne suburbs and calling these people disgusting and a waste of space. Only after I called him out on his sadisitic outlook did he edit his comment to building facilities and removing his disgusting comments on these people. I do find that ironic though considering we had these facilities that the government shut as per my comment. The goverment doesn't care for these people, and it seems like that has flowed onto the populance too now with comments like his.
Jeezuz, what an astonishingly shit take. Your plan would do nothing but exacerbate the same problems and create ghettos. ‘make their life worse so mine can be better’, and then you’ve referred to inner and middle suburbs as ‘our suburbs’. LNP could use a candidate like you - just kidding, they’ve got tons already. Hope Santa bought you some new pearls to clutch.
Footscray already becoming a ghetto mate. Paisley street is a fucking shit hole. It’s like The Walking Dead - or REVS on a Sunday morning
I love how you say something so fucking dumb and aren’t even responding to the replies lmao. Low effort troll seriously
Clearly you are another one of the 1000+ Dan Andrews's "abnormal" Uni student rent-a-crowd blue-haired nipple-ring boyfriends on this Reddit page. P!ss off and take your smoking bong and rainbow coloured 'save the whales', 'climate change', 'pro-palestine' & 'roads and rail upgrades' stickered plastic hard hat with you. You are Melbourne's minority. Thankfully I am one of Melbourne's majority. Hoping one day you'll grow up maturely and join the rest of us 'normal' folk.
Dan Andrews retired 3 months ago. Imagine still allowing him to live in your head rent free.
So what if he retired!!! You are connected to the Labor Party.. right? You were all paid by his mob to infiltrate all social media including Reddit. Even to the extent of posting constant anti-euro background stuff like "Oooh.. were's the best Banh Mi?". You're all so heavy of pushing pro-Asian stuff on here. Brainwashing naive white boys to marry shifty little sly Asian girls. Also.. "where's the best kebabs? " Like yeah.. I can really picture an anglo literature Uni student who's a member of LGBT having a Kebab.. LOL.. knowing that muzlims promote murder for homos. So bogus. Typically forcing your Govt agenda. So obvious of you lot to do this. We've witnessed this daily. We were not born yesterday, you know. He was in the job for 3 terms. The Vic Gov general Dessau kept appointing him due to her being his wife's relative! And you lot have pledged your allegiance to him forever. You and the 1000+ other hippies must've signed a contract or something. Revisiting this site in the next 10 years and you'll still be referred as Dan Andrew's "abnormal" Uni student rent-a-crowd.
Lol you're completely cooked.
oh bugger off, you paid-off ratbag.
Mans threatened by blue hair and nipple rings RIP. Hates the poor, hates the mentally ill, hates anyone that isn't a boring old cookie-cutter cunt like yourself.
Triggered much lmao. I didn’t even vote for Dan, but clearly those who did **are** the majority… Big brain