On a frenetic shopping strip in Melbourne’s inner-west, Hamada Ahmed is frustrated and desperate.
The African restaurant owner has just handed lunch to a regular customer, who says he only comes to Footscray to grab food or cultural items.
“This area is hectic, mate,” the customer says. “It’s off its head. Expect the unexpected.”
Around the corner, Western Bulldogs player Cody Weightman is volunteering his time, painting a mural inside what will next week become The Salvation Army’s Lighthouse Cafe.
The space will give vulnerable people free breakfast and lunch, drawing them away from asking local businesses for money or meals, and connecting them with social services and community, its champions say.
But neighbouring traders fear the cafe will only bring more of the same to the central shopping district: a feeling of danger and disorder, driven by drugs, alcohol and untreated mental illness.
Traders all agree these people deserve help, but a small service – and to local businesses’ detriment – will only deepen Footscray’s crisis rather than aid it, they say.
“We will file class action if they go ahead,” Ahmed says. “That’s the only option we have”.
Upon learning that the cafe, located on the corner of Albert and Paisley streets and supported by a $950,000 Victorian government investment, is set to open next Wednesday, his face falls.
“I’ve told my wife: ‘Don’t come here. Don’t bring the kids to Footscray’,” Ahmed says inside his restaurant, Khartoum City Cafe.
Surveying the cracked window that someone in a drug-induced rage recently smashed, he says, “There are drugs everywhere”.
John’s Nuts and Deli owner George, who has asked for his surname to be withheld over privacy concerns, is three doors down from what will soon become the Salvos’ cafe. Having worked in the area for 23 years, George believes “this is the worst Footscray has ever been”.
“It’s the screaming, swearing, defecating,” he says. “Action needs to be taken, and someone has to take it.”
Community leader Berhan Ahmed says the Salvos’ cafe may be well-intentioned, but it reflects the local and state governments’ fragmented and misguided approach to fixing the area’s ongoing crisis.
The stairwell to his office in a dated mall in Little Africa is a constant stream of people seeking culturally informed support for all manner of things from his community organisation, Africause, from booking mental health appointments, to refugees searching for work.
He says it is difficult to understand why the Victorian government would invest almost $1 million in a new iteration of a “mainstream” community service like the Salvos, rather than first examining Footscray’s existing network for gaps – and ensuring it is coordinated and effective.
“The role of government is to look at the bigger picture and determine whether the real issues are being addressed,” Berhan says.
“At the moment, our communities are growing in darkness rather than moving forward with genuine support and opportunity.”
Local MP Katie Hall, who approached Premier Jacinta Allan about starting the project, argues the opposite is true. She says the Salvos’ cafe is the “missing piece of the puzzle” for Footscray, and is specifically intended to act as a triage connecting people to local services.
The project is modelled off the Salvos’ Magpie Nest Cafe in Melbourne’s CBD, and is intentionally located to meet people where they need it, Hall says.
Three social workers will staff the cafe from Monday to Friday between 10am and 4pm, and external services will come in to the space to work with clients.
The organisation looked at about a dozen different sites before settling on the blank-slate shop opposite Footscray Plaza, which is smaller than Magpie Nest and devoid of showers and toilets – but the government is relying on Footscray’s Cohealth service to fill that gap, Hall says.
“Of course, we want and need all of the businesses in Footscray to be thriving. So this will be a space where, perhaps, instead of vulnerable people going into cafes and asking for food, they will be able to come here,” Hall says.
“You can’t police your way out of complex mental health issues or homelessness.”
Salvation Army commanding officer Brendan Nottle notes the organisation has received only positive feedback, and says the outpouring of support is unlike anything he’s seen before.
“We certainly don’t see that we’re knights riding in with shining armour with all the solutions,” Nottle says. “We see what we will provide is a value add to what’s already there.”
Footscray Community Response lawyer Shifrah Blustein, however, says the cafe’s minimal resourcing demonstrates it is an optics exercise only.
“There is no 24/7 public toilet in central Footscray, but unhoused people are the ones demonised for relieving themselves, instead of blaming the politicians who refuse to provide real facilities,” Blustein says.
Maribyrnong council is covering the lease for the space, and is unaware of any concerns about its location or resourcing, Mayor Mohamed Semra says. The council was not required to formally consult the community about the cafe, given it is not delivering the project.
“Any operational decisions, including its model, staffing and resourcing, sits with The Salvation Army and the state government,” Semra says.
Next door to Ahmed’s restaurant, at variety store Bright Merkato, spices line the walls and handwoven baskets are piled on the floor.
Dawit Kebede has owned the shop for more than a decade, and says the Salvos’ service would be better suited elsewhere in Footscray, outside the central shopping district.
“Our business has already been struggling,” he says. “Customers [who are] coming in – sometimes they’re scared to get out.”
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
