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