Social workers have called out Channel Nine’s renovation show The Block to provide housing for those who have been left homeless following their purchase of The Gatwick Hotel in Melbourne’s St. Kilda.
Former St Kilda homelessness support worker Billi Clarke told the The Age, ‘We are not saying it should have stayed the way it was,’ noting the run-down former hotel had become a ‘notorious hellhole.’
Clarke adds that the closure of boarding houses in Melbourne is having a ‘ripple effect’ in the local area and on the homeless.
‘I have never seen so many people sleeping on the street in my life and I have been in the sector for 42 years,’ she tells The Age.
Channel Nine bought the Gatwick for $10 million for the location of season 14 of The Block.
‘Eight people who used to live in the Gatwick now sleep in the 7-Eleven opposite where they used to live,’ homelessness support worker Donna told The Age.
In March, Kate Langbroek revealed she had been attacked by a homeless man in her home. She shared images of the bruises from the altercation and called for something to be done about Melbourne’s homelessness issue.
She told her radio listeners that dangerous behaviour had become more rampant in St Kilda ever since residents of the Gatwick Hotel were moved into nearby public housing.
It has been revealed that the man who attacked the radio personality at her home would regularly sleep at the Gatwick.
Langbroek called on the Victorian government to ‘clean up’ the area which has a long history of drug overdoses, homelessness and street sex workers.
Channel Nine is yet to respond to the homelessness issue, however host Scott Cam has previously stated that a lot of people were recognising the fact the series were changing a big piece of St Kilda.
‘We always love playing a part in that; changing buildings that have been a bit of an eyesore, or a bane on the area,’ he said.
‘We transform those sorts of things, and the community is always pretty grateful.’
