After watching Sue’s squat saga unfold on social media, TWiSK asked her to document the experience. She found many service agencies, but not much ‘service’. This is her account of three days of effort trying to find help.
‘On the morning of Tuesday 2 December 2025, I discovered a squat outside the office in our property. The front of the office has a ramp that curves around. The ramp was filled in on one side by a Woolworths trolley and then with cardboard and polystyrene boxes, and various other things creating a humpy that was approximately one and half metres wide and about 2 metres long. There was an umbrella, a pink speaker, a shopping trolley and a variety of other things holding up the humpy.
‘There appeared to be a sleeping person in the Humpy. We were all a bit hesitant about disturbing them, so I decided to see what I could do to assist and refer the person on.
‘I rang Launch Housing that afternoon and was on hold for a huge amount of time before I was cut off due to it being after hours.
‘On Wednesday morning, I telephoned the Salvation Army, who had me on hold for about 53 minutes, they asked me to ring Launch Housing. I rang Launch Housing again and finally got someone to answer the phone. He was quite rude and insisted that it was not his responsibility, he didn’t know why I had telephoned and that I had rung the incorrect body. I pointed out that this was the telephone number that I was provided by the Salvation Army and that was listed on the Launch Housing website. He then went on to tell me that the phone call was directed to him but that he was still the wrong person to call, we eventually hung up after the conversation seemed to be going nowhere. The revelation indicated that Launch Housing and the Salvation Army are in the same building and are effectively the same people, but with multiple telephone numbers.
‘On Wednesday morning, I decided then that I could not achieve much on the telephone. I personally attended at the St Kilda Town Hall and asked to speak to the duty workers who dealt with homeless people. I was told that there was not such person and that I obviously misunderstood the situation. I pointed out that I had been informed that there was a person at Council who liaised with Victoria Police. I stayed there for a good half hour or so, and was then told to go to the Police.
‘I then when to the St Kilda Police Station where I waited for over half an hour before somebody would even acknowledge that I was in the building. When I asked to speak to whoever dealt with the homeless people, I was told that there was nobody there who could help me, they could not assist, and that I should call 000 emergency services.
‘I then went to Josh Burns office. The staff there were really helpful and really nice. They took down all my details, noted down my frustration, and said that they would make enquiries. They were the most helpful and politest of everybody I had dealt with.
‘Then I went to the Sacred Heart Mission. Again, charming people, delightful and helpful but not able to actually do anything. They indicated to me that they had no outreach. They asked if I could bring the women in and they would assist. I pointed out that that was not really feasible, and I asked if they knew of anybody who did outreach. They suggested I go back to Launch Housing. I told them about my situation with Launch Housing and they shrugged their shoulders.
‘During the day on Wednesday, my neighbours contacted my office wanting to talk about the humpy out the front of my office. They explained that they have young children, who were frightened of the uncertainty of the situation and where not sure what to do. I tried my best to explain what I had been doing to her and what I would be doing to try and sort the situation out.
Calls to councillors and ABC 774
‘I then started hassling Justin Halliday online. I then also telephoned Serge Thoman, as he is a friend of a friend. Serge was delightful and said he’d make some enquiries. Justin was also polite and charming, and said he’d also make some enquiries and that he could probably get somebody to come out to take the rubbish away. It was made perfectly clear to me that as the structure was on Private Property, Council or Victoria Police could not dismantle. I was told that I would have to dismantle it myself, as it was on my property. I said I was more than happy to invite them on to my property to dismantle it, but they said that they could not do that even with my permission because it was private property.
‘On Thursday the 4 December 2025, and after 3 days of being passed around, I dismantled the structure with the help of one of my staff members that morning before by business opened.
‘The person was not in it, and it appeared that she had not been there for the last 24 hours or so. I was horrified as I dismantled because there were many used syringes that were not capped. It was lucky that we had thick gardening gloves when we undertook this job. It took us some hours. We filled up my two rubbish bins to the top overflowing. The neighbour came out and she gave me her bins and I filled them up until they were overflowing as well. Finally, when I had about 6 or so smaller items and the large pink speaker, the Council arrived with a truck. They would not take anything that was still on my property. I had to drag it onto the foot path and then they would take it.
‘All the stuff consisted of Cardboard boxes, polystyrene boxes, plastic boxes, broken umbrellas, a broken shopping trolly, a huge pink speaker and other assorted junk. There were many uncapped syringes and 3 yellow syringe containers. Nobody would touch the syringes and I had to do that myself wearing my gardening gloves and I put them into the syringe containers.
Agency maze was circular
‘I do not believe that anybody would have done anything had I not gone on ABC774 radio when Raf Epstein was interviewing the Mayor. It was also helpful that I had both Justin and Serge’s telephone numbers.
‘I have lived in the area for over 40 years. I have practiced Law in the area for 30 years. I know my way around bureaucracies and systems. I could not get anywhere.
‘How is a mentally ill person supposed to work out this system?
‘I spent probably 20+ hours on this trying to come to a satisfactory ending. To say that I am frustrated and feel that I have been smashing my head against a brick wall is an understatement. Nobody accepted responsibility. Everybody said that it was somebody else’s responsibility. Everybody told me that there were systems, but nobody could tell me what the systems were and how to activate the systems.’
