Despair and longing: the view from the footpath

More than 105,237 people are homeless in Australia. NAMATULLAH KADRIE went out on to the streets of Melbourne to speak to people about their plight and to ask about their world.

A man experiencing homelessness sleeps peacefully despite the chilling cold and rain, taking shelter under one of Melbourne’s famous shopping locale – Bourke St Mall. I later find out that the small trolley beside his head is a makeshift house he created for his terrier.

When asked about his world view, he says: “Life is absolutely meaningless. I have come to this conclusion; it is a place of nothing but tragedies. Every door you enter. It is filled with tragedies. Tragedies here, tragedies there, tragedies everywhere! Humanity’s goal should be to find an escape from this. I have created mine. This cigarette and lighter is my life and God.”

The container holds a placard and several empty 7-Eleven coffee cups. I ask a homeless person nearby about the whereabouts of the owner. He replies: “He flew away. He found a house. The Government found him, I mean. Lucky this boy!”

A homeless man, Jonah, contemplates his plight. A sad story lies behind Jonah's arm injury. “One night, as I was walking down the street, I heard a woman scream," he says. "I ran towards the sound and saw a tall man harassing her. I intervened. I didn’t know but the punk was carrying a knife with him. He pulled it out and started stabbing me with it. Look at what he did to me!”

Jonah shows me his arm; all you see is darkened scars. He then lifts his pants to show me the injuries on his leg. “I went to the hospital and got hundreds of stitches all over my body,” he says. The person who attacked him was taken to court, he says.  Jonah says he is to receive victim’s compensation, which the court supposedly reckoned to be $240,000.

When I approach a young woman, who is both feeding herself and her dog a cold pizza, she spontaneously says: “You can’t take a picture of me but you can take a picture of my dog, Buff.” I thank her and ask what had happened to Buff. She says a pedestrian kicked Buff when he was on the escalators, causing him to sustain a horrific leg injury. Buff ought to be taken to a hospital every five days to clean the wounds, she says, but she doesn't have the money.

A man sits with his head buried in his arms. For nearly 20 minutes, the man does not lift his head. When he does, I go up to him and give him some Afghan food, which he says tastes  “unbelievably good”.

Two feet can be seen. One wrapped with gauze dressing, the other uninjured but bare. No trace of the gender can be deduced from the feet. The individual later tells me that he has a condition that makes it uncomfortable to wear any type of shoes or slippers. To quote the man, who wishes to remain anonymous: “I hate shoes.”

A man lies peacefully asleep notwithstanding the wintry cold of Melbourne. Pedestrians toss not coins or notes, but instead leave bags of food and drink.

Darcy MacArthur, the shop manager of social enterprise HoMie, shows the range of services they provide for people experiencing homelessness. He explains that when people shop at HoMie, they vicariously provide clothes, food, grooming services, job training and eventually jobs for young people experiencing homelessness. He says people experiencing homelessness who come to them are referred to as “guests” and “VIPs”. MacArthur explains that HoMie “abstains from using the word homeless persons because of its sheer negative connotation”.