Former trendy suburb now an inner-city slum | A Current Affair

The famous and historic suburb that's in a terrible decline.Once a hub for the arts and entertainment, it's now an inner -city slum with high rates of drug use, crime and homelessness.Local residents and business owners have had enough.

An historic suburb, a famous strip battling a bad reputation.A lot of vacant tenancies and yeah, obviously bit of homelessness around the area.Melbourne's bayside beauty, St Kilda, its main drag in desperate need of a makeover.

Look, St Kilda is very much in the process of revitalisation.Locals fed up.

I get that there are people on drugs and there are people who have mental illnesses, but they're slipping through the system.

On paper, St Kilda has it all.The foreshore, Luna Park, the Pride Centre, pubs, clubs and theatres.But over the years, it's become synonymous with rough sleepers, drug users and crime.

When I first moved here, no one would come and visit me. I'll come to St Kilda, it's too scary.

Tracey has called St Kilda home for 40 years.She's seen it all.

And I understand that people do think, oh, we can't go, something bad's going to happen to us.But it's more, we need the businesses, we need the rents to be accessible.

But we do have a bit of a drug culture going on.

A drug problem, yeah.

Yeah, very much so.

Grandmother Jane is another long -term local who wants to feel safer.

Quite often they're harmless and sometimes they can be very menacing.

Yeah.

They will come scream at you.

Yeah.

So it depends.

Is it a bad look for St Kilda?

I don't think it's a good look.But, you know, I've noticed a lot of the shopfronts have closed down.

The potential here is amazing, you know, I keep saying.

Santos visits family in St Kilda regularly from Canada.What do you think needs to be done?I mean, it's a tough question, isn't it?

I think the government could take care of these people who have this illness.Maybe move them out of Grey Street and move them into another area.Help them out in life, you know.

It isn't an easy fix.We recognise that.

Mayor of Port Phillip, Alex Macon, says it's a work in progress.The biggest concerns we're hearing is on anti -social behaviour, homelessness, rough sleepers.What's being done to tackle that?

Council's working with Victoria Police, we're also working with community service providers to really provide a multifaceted approach to work with people in need and in vulnerable situations.

It's all well and good to just say we should move them on, you know, we don't want them on the street, but we really need those support services, don't we?

We do and that's why Council proactively works with the service providers.We actually meet with them regularly to triage and provide the support that people need.

Yeah, I think, you know, there was a bit of a legacy from COVID, probably just greedy landlords that were there previously.So I think the rents got bumped up enormously.And that's probably didn't help any of the traders on the street.So and then yeah, I think just a lot of buildings went into a state of disrepair.So with all the renewed effort and the money being poured into the area, I think, you know, you'll notice a really huge turnaround.

Former AFL player and publican Paul Dimitina is backing the St Kilda revitalisation project with plans to open two businesses on the strip.

And we'll have a gourmet family deli slash grocery.a dimatina espresso bar be opening.So it's something that we're really excited about and looking forward to getting in and getting our hands dirty and creating a real little community hub with our business that we create down there.He says St Kilda can shine bright again.With all the renewed effort and the money being poured into the area, I think you'll notice a really huge turnaround.

The community is driving the rebrand.Grimestoppers was launched last year, an initiative to clean up graffiti in the area.But locals can only do so much.They want more police on the beat.So what needs to be done to help these people and to clean up the streets?It's a hard question, isn't it?

Well, it needs a police presence.

Yeah, more police.They're under -resourced, aren't they?

The police, the local police are fantastic.They get a really bad rap and they shouldn't.They are understaffed.Do they need more resources?Oh my God.They are understaffed and underpaid.

With a new hotel and other businesses pouring into the area, St Kilda's next chapter is ready to be written.

I think everything's a cycle, so let's hope that the next cycle for Fitzroy Street and St Kilda's just, you know, a really buoyant, vibrant one and we can see the street back to what it used to be, the glory days, where it was a really desired location to go out and wine and dine and party in.

Yeah, there's no doubt it's a difficult issue.Surely a solution can be found.St Kilda deserves better.