We call on the City of Melbourne to immediately end the use of security guards targeting homeless people in th CBD and fund programs and services to support the homeless community! 

Background:
The City of Melbourne has put out a four-year plan to achieve its vision of making Melbourne the ‘best and fairest city’. The plan includes $2 million to employ security guards as a ‘community safety function’. People that are homeless are being targeted. 

The security guard program targets:

Begging – Begging is a life-sustaining activity for many homeless people and a product of poverty. Poverty is not a crime!

Drinking in public – Homeless people don’t have access to a private place to enjoy a drink. We know from the inquest into the passing of Tany Day that punishing public alcohol consumption is dangerous and doesn’t reduce alcohol-related harm in the long run. People who come and go from popular community activities like football games and nightclubs are often out on the streets drinking every weekend in the CBD, but they aren't targeted or criticised in the media. 'Normies' that are drunk in the city have also been known to kick and spit on people that are homeless in the CBD. This is a regular occurrence.

Existing in public spaces - who gets to decide what kind of people have access to public space and who doesn't? “Public nuisance” behaviour is often used to target homeless people, taking their belongings and pushing them out of the City into more remote areas, away from support services and the enjoyment of the city. Their rights, including feeling safe and secure, should be respected just the same as any other member of the community.  

The City says they’ve consulted with community in developing this plan, but homeless people have not been consulted! Now is their chance. Please share this petition with people you may support in your community or through your work.

The Council is currently taking submissions on their draft plan. We urge the community to make a submission by this Sunday 21 September 2025. Make a submission here.

We believe that this program is an anti-homeless person task force. Real safety risks should be managed under existing programs and services that have proper, lawful safeguards – not increased policing and punishment of homelessness. The program is clearly designed to intimidate, dispossess and displace the homeless community. It’s cruel, it’s illogical, and may be unlawful! 

Homeless people have rights! 
The Council falsely claims the program "does not raise any human rights issues." The program clearly:

Violates fundamental human rights - including the right to life, freedom of movement, privacy and reputation, property rights, liberty and security of the person, and the prohibition on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
Lacks legal authority – the program bypasses usual safeguards that protect the public in relation to policing powers, raising the potential for unlawful harassment, threats, assaults, and false imprisonment against homeless people. 

People that are homeless face stigma, discrimination, violence and abuse on the streets and in crisis accommodation. They already experience high levels of surveillance, harassment and targeting from police and security guards on a daily basis.

Melbourne, and all our capital cities, need to be safe places for vulnerable members of our community.

People experiencing homelessness aren't criminals. They deserve housing, healthcare, and support, not punishment! 

Most of the tensions between the community and council workers arise from council workers taking and disposing of belongings – including bedding, identification documents, phones and mementos. Even when people are left with instructions, very few are ever able to retrieve personal belongings.  

FACT: More than 50% of Melbourne's homeless community is under 24 years of age, while 10% are under 12 years of age. While Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up 0.55% of the City's total population, they represent 17% of people rough sleeping in the city. This program will have an incredibly significant and disproportionate impact on them.

FACT: Almost every person in the homeless community has experienced multiple traumatic events and PTSD is 7x times higher than in the general population. Homeless people are the net victims of crime and violence and are the least able to cope with the intimidation, harassment and the potential for violence generated by the existence of untrained security guards who treat our community as suspicious, unpredictable and violent.

Deadline for submissions is this Sunday 21 September 2025.

Act NOW! 
Sign this petition to demand a better future for our community! We will share this petition to the Council as part of our feedback on their draft plan.
 
Be HEARD! 
Melbourne City Council is taking submissions on their draft plan.

You can share your experiences of interacting with council security guards and staff, what you have witnessed, and anything else you want to say to the council about the security guard program or homelessness in Melbourne.

Make a submission here. Scroll down until you see "upload a response" and click there to give your feedback.

Homeless Persons Union: Who we are 
The Homeless Persons Union of Victoria began in 2013 by a group of people with lived experience of homelessness and their supporters. It provided a space where people could air their views about services, the law, housing and the media representation of the homeless community. It was successful in carrying out two large direct-action campaigns – the Bendigo St occupation (2016) and the No Homeless Ban (2017). The HPUV is once again starting to get active in a world that is increasingly securitised, privatised and hostile to the homeless community. We once again seek to support and raise the voices of the people whose lives are directly impacted by these state responses.