Homeless Persons Union Victoria

Councillor Olivia Ball is a champion of human rights and social justice. Olivia is what accountability and transparency looks like in local government here in Australia.

She is the only representative of the City of Melbourne who actually listened to the concerns and desires of a stigmatised community and their advocates, as well as over 850 Melburnians who signed our petition to call for the end of the Community Safety Officer program.

The City of Melbourne is far from a democratic institution, as Lord Mayor Nick Reece keeps boasting, when business owners get 2 VOTES at council elections and the whole place seems to have been co-opted by developers and retailers.

The most vulnerable members of our community here in Melbourne suffer as a consequence, where due diligence by the council is ignored. The approval to increase the CSO budget is a decision based on class by a bloated, seemingly smug set of councillors who are unrepresentative of the broader community that live and use the city. The City of Melbourne is in need of desperate reform. It is presently quite disgraceful.

But we will continue to hold the council to account on this program and on its overall approach to homelessness in our CBD, despite the disastrous decision on Tuesday night.
The council has still not:

- completed a thorough Victorian Charter of Human Rights assessment of the program
- had meaningful input from people currently homeless about the program
- conducted an independent evaluation of the first 6-months of the program

Despite the indifference towards or misrepresentation that has been put upon our friends and family who are homeless in the city, we will keep fighting.

Thank-you for your support.

Have a great day, Olivia Ball ❤️



Councillors: Gladys Liu Owen Guest

Senator Lidia Thorpe always carries herself with integrity, and today was no different at the RALLY PARTY to stop the developer land grab of our public housing across Naarm/Melbourne. HANDS OFF! ☠️

The politicians are in cahoots and trying to give it all away for a buck! Here’s looking at you Jacinta Allan Nick Staikos MP You have lost your soul Victorian Labor You have let the people down.

The legacy media is no better, creating popcorn news out of significant public policy issues, absolutely no analysis, just sound bites. If it wasn’t so brainwashing, it would just be embarrassing 9 News Melbourne ABC Melbourne

But we the community need to STAND UP to our stinky politicians and their developer mates and save what’s ours. The rich get richer, while the poor cop it!

Start following your nearest action group and get involved -

The Save Public Housing Collective


HOUSING NEED NOT DEVELOPER GREED ☠️

Senator Lidia Thorpe always carries herself with integrity, and today was no different at the RALLY PARTY to stop the developer land grab of our public housing across Naarm/Melbourne. HANDS OFF! ☠️

The politicians are in cahoots and trying to give it all away for a buck! Here’s looking at you Jacinta Allan Nick Staikos MP You have lost your soul Victorian Labor You have let the people down.

The legacy media is no better, creating popcorn news out of significant public policy issues, absolutely no analysis, just sound bites.If it wasn’t so brainwashing, it would just be embarrassing 9 News Melbourne ABC Melbourne

But we the community need to STAND UP to our stinky politicians and their developer mates and save what’s ours. The rich get richer, while the poor cop it!

Start following your nearest action group and get involved -

The Save Public Housing Collective


With Gabrielle de Vietri Socialist Alliance

HOUSING NEED NOT DEVELOPER GREED ☠️

Disgraceful, demoralising scenes inside the old, gothic, and uninviting City of Melbourne council meeting room last night as we watched a range of responses from councillors speaking to their budget to double the number of Community Safety Officers on the streets of our capital city.

From seemingly unaware of what was going on, to self-satisfied smugness, and both completely unaccountable and cooked responses to the 956 Melbournians who told council they are opposed to this program.

Not to forget all the expertise brought to this campaign from our hardworking community legal centres Fitzroy Legal Service Southside Justice Justice Connect Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service - VALS Inner Melbourne Community Legal and Federation of Community Legal Centres Victoria

Your council is far from a democratic institution, Lord Mayor Nick Reece

The councillors on the City of Melbourne are not only an embarassment to our capital city, they are guilty of ignoring Human Rights, due process, and most importantly, very serious peer stories of neglect and cruelty that has been shown towards them by the suite of officers employed by the City of Melbourne.

This is a really dark day for democracy in Australia, but just another day for our homeless community who survive, despite everything the state throws at them that makes their lives hard.

But now we are building a peer and ally movement here in Naarm/Melbourne, so get on board.

This isn't the end of the road. Just the start.

Thanks to all the beautiful people who turned out for our vigil to honour all those who have passed while homeless in parks and remote areas across our state last night. We see you. Thanks to all the people who sent messages of solidarity and couldn't make it. We hear you.

A special mention to Councillor Olivia Ball the only councillor who listened to the community and did not endorse her council's budget. Good on you, Olivia ❤️

Councillors who voted the $3.75M CSO budget in: Homelessness Advisory Comittee Chair Gladys Liu Owen Guest and others.

Homeless Vigil - no more deaths!
Tuesday May 26th
5:30pm
Melbourne Town Hall

Join us to honour all those who have died while homeless in parkland and remote areas across Victoria.

The city is a sanctuary for our friends and family with nowhere else to go, sometimes fleeing domestic and childhood family violence. Many reasons.

The city has people, lights, cameras and services. The last thing we want to be doing is moving people on, issuing them exclusion orders, provide no storage support for people's personal items, and kick them to move on while they are asleep.

Tomorrow night we will witness City of Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece with Chair of the Homelessness Advisory Committee Gladys Liu, as well as Owen Guest and others voice their views on the Community Safety Officer program.

We have now collected 956 people on our petition who call for the program to stop: https://c.org/yWrQmBTVFw

Join us straight after the vigil inside the Town Hall to see what decision the council makes and whether they have listened to the evidence of what works, or stubbornly continue on with their PR exercise of a safety program, which has no data on who feels safe in our CBD.

The Guardian Australia article about all those who have lost their lives to homelessness in park and remote areas across Australia can be accessed here: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/may/09/homeless-people-deaths-per-year-australia-ntwnfb

Please wear black and bring a flower.

Check this out -

CJ recorded this back in October when we fought to remove the City of Melbourne contractor CROWNLAND SECURITY from hassling our homeless friends and family in the CBD.

That firm has now been replaced with the in-house Community Safety Officer team.

All CJ's points are still as relevant as ever, as the council seeks to spend $3.75M to double the number of CSOs, instead of putting that money into actually helping people get off the street. It's not only a stupid waste of money, but a harmful one.

City of Melbourne - you can't police your way out of homelessness, poverty, trauma and disadvantage.

We will gather at the Melbourne Town Hall this Tuesday May 26th, 5:30pm, to honour all those who have died while homeless in parks and remote areas across Victoria.

See the Guardian Australia article about the number of people dying homeless, isolated in parks and remote areas across the country. This has to stop https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/may/09/homeless-people-deaths-per-year-australia-ntwnfb

If you're in town, we would love to see you at the vigil.

Please wear black and bring a flower.

We will head inside afterwards to witness the councillors Nick Reece Gladys Liu Owen Guest and others vote on the CSO program.

We now have 952 people on our petition behind us who say they want it gone https://c.org/yWrQmBTVFw

How many more vulnerable people have to be excluded from our city before they listen?

Homeless Vigil - no more deaths!
Melbourne Town Hall
Tuesday May 26, 5:30pm

Honouring all those who have lost their lives to homelessness in parks and remote areas across Victoria.

Please wear black and bring a flower.

Our city should be a welcoming place for the most vulnerable members of our community. Our homeless friends and family should not be moved on from our city, issued with exclusion orders, and have their bedding and personal items removed. Shame on the City of Melbourne

After the vigil, we will head inside to the council meeting to witness it justify a doubling of the Community Safety Officer program, despite the program's inadequate 6-month evaluation and our petition which gathered over 800 Melbournians in opposition to it.

We hope to see you there in solidarity with all those homeless tonight across our city and our state.

We want to see some serious compassion in action from our so-called leaders. How many more people have to die before something changes?



Councillors: Nick Reece Gladys Liu Owen Guest

Guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/may/09/homeless-people-deaths-per-year-australia-ntwnfb Guardian Australia

Thanks to the volunteer broadcasters on 3CR Community Radio we have been able to speak on many programs and reach a radio audience for the last 42 days since The Age broke the news about the Community Safety Officer program at the City of Melbourne

Listeners to 3CR have been able to hear our peer testimonies in extended form, as well as analysis and conversations about the Criminalisation of Homelessness wave sweeping across our inner-Melbourne councils, including City Of Port Phillip, potentially Yarra City Council and others.

Thanks to the support of 3CR, we have been able to raise awareness about council's punishing responses to homelessness in our city, including Move On and exclusion orders, as well as confiscation of essential items like bedding and identification.

Tragically, we have learned of yet another person who has died while homeless on the Mornington in the past couple of days. How many people have to die before our so-called leaders see this as a national emergency and actually start investing in people's lives and their prosperity? Every life is sacred. Do something about it Nick Staikos MP Jacinta Allan Anthony Albanese Clare O'Neil MP

We'll be heading to the Melbourne Town Hall again this Tuesday May 26 to watch councillors justify a $3.75M unevaluated, bogus PR exercise of a program that they should be ashamed of ushering in. We hope you can join us there.

We will keep looking out for community and turn the surveillance back upon the City to document the ways the council itself is a form of harm in our CBD.

Thanks to the crew on Filef Melbourne for the feature this week. The full chat is on our Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/homeless-persons-union-victoria/pat-hpuv-on-radio-filef-3cr?si=75ee3245076e432e92fe15ea180869c7&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Thanks for your support.

We will be heading to Melbourne Town Hall next Tuesday May 26 at around 5:30pm to hear and see the City of Melbourne councillors Gladys Liu Owen Guest and others, as well as Lord Mayor Nick Reece, vote to usher in their new round of 11 Community Safety Officers, who will patrol the streets of our CBD at an extra cost of $1.75M in 2026-27, despite the program seemingly having no validity to warrant extra resourcing and actually causing LESS SAFETY for some of the most vulnerable members of our community.

Whose safety is City of Melbourne prioritising in our CBD?

The City of Melbourne released its so-called 'revised' budget last night, after a period of community feedback, claiming there is 'broad support' for the CSO program. We simply cannot know if this is the case, but we are highly suspicious of this claim, considering the non-transparent, undemocratic way the council has conducted itself throughout this whole period of scrutiny on the program.

There has been mixed messaging from its directors as to the purpose and scope of the program.

Important documents have been shared with the public too late for thorough scrutiny and feedback.

It simply IGNORED for many weeks serious allegations of misconduct by officers, as revealed by former employee, Joel Owen, in The Age on Saturday April 11.

It blew off our eyewitness reports of officers throwing someone to the ground and kicking someone awake to move on. They didn't appear concerned with that one bit and said without a complaint, it never happened.

As we have been saying, and our community colleagues have been saying, there are serious issues with the CSO program and we are very concerned the City of Melbourne persists on walking down a surveillance and criminalisation path, instead of actually investing in housing and opportunities for people to move on from homelessness.

But this is not the end of the road. It's just the start.

If you would like to work with us to keep our eyes on the council and its CSOs, if you would like to support Melbourne's homeless community, drop us a message here or at [email protected]

Thanks for your growing support ❤️