Panel Discussion: Surveillance and the Street: The Recent Criminalisation of Homelessness

Recorded 2pm Saturday the 26th of July 2025From COVID-19 lockdowns to a planned rough-sleeping ban in Port Melbourne, recent years have seen an evolution in efforts to criminal-ise homelessness in Greater Melbourne. This panel of advocates and peers with lived experience explores the recent history of policies to exclude unhoused people from public spaces. The conversation builds on the work of the peer-produced radio series Homeless in Hotels, documenting homeless Melburnians' experiences of lockdown-which brought emergency hotel accom-modation, but also made rough sleeping effectivley illegal (something the city of Melbourne had also tried to do in 2017).Our panel will convene participants in the original radio program with other experts to documentthe aftereffects of that period and the development of related policies subsequently. Speakers: David Boarder Giles - Anthropologist from DeakinMegs Fitzgerald - Fitzroy Legal Service strategic litigation lived experience of homelessness. Pat "Spike" - Social Worker, lived experience of homelessness/AOD & former 3CR programmer on RuminationsCraig "Turtle" - Current living on the street, interviewee on Homeless in HotelsGreg Denim - Harm Reduction Australia & Law Enforcement Action Partnerships Special thanks to Violet Coco and Kelly Whitworth for their help behind the scenes.