Footscray Community Response

Remember when all the right wing propaganda outlets said “2 million people would leave NYC if Mamdani got elected?”

Yeah…about that…how you like them apples?

While getting credit for opening the Lighthouse Cafe which provides food but not housing or even a toilet to unhoused Footscray residents, the Salvo’s has been secretly working to close Foley House, a crucial and rare supported accommodation service in Footscray.

There was no announcement; had this not been leaked to the media the community would even know.

Dozens of residents are at risk of becoming homeless again because there is a terrible shortage of housing full stop, and especially suitable supported housing for people with complex needs. Some have been transferred to inferior alternative housing with inadequate support, some are being re-referred to homelessness services.

This is devastating. The community is upset, worried and concerned about the future of the residents and desperately needed housing options in our community.

The community will come together on 14 June 2026 at 11am at MP Katie Hall’s office to seek answers and a commitment of ongoing funding to sustain this critical service. In the meantime, we ask that relocations are paused.

More info on what’s happening here: https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/footscray-s-most-vulnerable-were-promised-a-forever-home-now-they-have-to-move-out-20260527-p6013l.html



Katie Hall MP
Daniel Mulino

If you think police keep us safe, you urgently need to watch last night’s 4 Corners. Over and over police, drunk on power and impunity, are brutalising extremely marginalised community members. This is not safety, police are making us less safe. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6nomqV_tHlA&list=PLDTPrMoGHssDTF6wySxfL89TPt5LRezhz&pp=iAQB&ra=m

Police beat a woman in a Sydney street. Their own camera captured their cruelty The family of a woman brutally assaulted by police in Sydney has fought to have body-worn camera vision released, in the hope officers will be better trained in responding to acute mental health situations.

The horrors of deploying state violence to further punish the most marginalised communities are happening all over the continent. And everywhere communities are coming together to defend those suffering the most at the hands of capitalist cruelty and to build communities based on care. Solidarity to all those fighting back around so-called Australia and the globe.

Calls for safety are political. They are never about everyone’s safety.

Who is losing out when some call for more security measures in the mall?

We need to roll back the securitisation of Footscray - no more cops, security guards, CCTV, urban planning that seeks to manage ‘undesirable’ populations and regulate access to public space, and encouraging mentalities of blame, exclusion and punishment of those being most harmed by capitalism.

Get along to this important action on Saturday!