17/05/2026
TO THE POWERS THAT BE: *
YOU’VE FOUND AN EVEN MORE ISOLATED AND UNSAFE LOCATION THAN MOORE ST. PLEASE DO BETTER.
You have somehow managed to find a replacement location for our Moore St support services hub that is even more inhospitable, less safe, more hostile and, worst of all, is somehow even more disconnected and detached from any meaningful community connection or sense of belonging.
After three months of being told nothing of consequence since providers were first informed in February that the powers that be were working on an alternative location, we’re now told that we’re out of the Moore St location as of 22 June.
Within that long month, the powers must presumably oversee the decommissioning of an existing carpark and install temporary services (power, lighting, potable water, grey water capture, CCTV, some version of shelter, perhaps some places for a few to sit) while they work out how and when permanent services will be built (while the site is occupied and active six days per week) in the fullness of time.
The unsaid but apparent bias and rationale for this new location decision - that it's just for a bunch of stereotypical homeless people so who cares - is wrong as a matter of fact.
The majority of people that access our services, at Moore St and at innumerable community-driven service hubs across Perth and WA, are people who do not have the resources required to get from one day to the next without assistance.
They are most often in insecure or sporadic housing. They are now more likely to be pensioners or increasingly people -and people with children - who have resources, who are often employed but are now living in their cars or worse, and are desperately trying to keep their kids in their schools and hold on to their employment because there is nowhere with a fixed address available for them to lease or occupy.
We also have patrons that tell us that they pay as they leave daily accommodation each morning to reserve their spot for that evening for the opportunity to sleep with strangers on the loungeroom floor of a private residence with access to only a toilet and sink. Monetising misery.
The new Perth hub location is at the train-track periphery of an area where the majority of humans leave at the end of their work day. A virtual ghost town. There is no other reason to be there. No cafes or restaurants, nothing to better activate the area in the evening after workers depart. Nothing that offers any sense of welcoming or that makes it safe - and especially after dark.
Some of the location attributes proclaimed by the powers that be?
IT'S ONLY 500M FROM MOORE ST, THEY SAY.
Only another 500 metres matters big time to the people that come through the Perth bus port to access Moore St services. They are often older, and are often aged or disability pensioners that depend on mobility assistance.
It's already more than a kilometre walk from the bus port to Moore St.
The 'only 500m' additional walk to the new location is based on following the train line past McIver Station, behind the RPH carpark and then through the underpass under Lord St. Sound like a safe and attractive stroll? And if CCTV? It only records an unwanted event after the fact rather than preventing it.
Most people are often carrying additional burdens. For a pensioner, it’s more likely a small shopping trolley to carry a food hamper or clothing. For others, they are carrying their homes.
THE NEW LOCATION WILL ONLY BE USED FOR 20 HOURS PER WEEK SO WE WON'T BE SUPPLYING TOILETS, THEY SAY.
Note that 400 or more people can attend on a busy Sunday morning including guests and volunteers, and up to 250 can attend on a weeknight.
Apart from the fact that the state is contravening the requirements of its own Health Act to exclude provision of toilets, it means that volunteers and guests, of whatever age and ability, would need to walk at least an extra 500m one-way to get to the two closest public toilets through an inhospitable ghost town, one back at Moore St (remember the underpass) or at the river end of Wellington Square (1+kms).
Even if a volunteer jumps in their car to 'go', they leave the remaining volunteers short-handed to manage their service.
One small example of volunteer impact? The food just for a Tuesday night – 150+ meals and growing – is generally bought by numerous individual volunteers or small community groups, is prepared off-site and is then delivered by a team of volunteers for a team of volunteers to distribute. Many of them are already struggling themselves under the ever-increasing cost of food, fuel and basic essentials.
YET WHEN IT COMES TO TOILET REQUIREMENTS ELSEWHERE IN THE CITY…
When we previously were granted use of Wellington Square for an annual one-off Tuesday evening Christmas dinner, the City of Perth required 12 portable toilets including all-accessible ones - in addition to the two fixed toilets already there, each with multiple stalls.
We have made clear that our (Brollie Brigade) services within the City of Perth are suspended without access to toilets - access to sanitation and personal hygiene also just happens to be a basic human right under the UN Charter and according to the Australian High Commissioner for Human Rights. But then so is access to adequate housing and how is that going?
We and no doubt other services will not breech our duty of care to our volunteers and our guests.
IT'S AN EVEN LARGER SPACE THAN MOORE ST, THEY SAY.
And? A decommissioned carpark next to the train line with no buildings to break the fierce winds that often drive winter fronts and rain. Even in the comparatively protected Moore St location, temporary gazebos have become airborne despite best efforts to secure them atop hardstand pavers and bitumen.
IT CAN ACCOMMODATE PARKING FOR VOLUNTEERS AND GUESTS, THEY SAY
And who is going to provide the management and coordinate the movement of service provider trucks, patron and guest cars (and with parking on offer more will come to access the service) and hundreds of people often anxious that they don't miss out on the limited support on offer?
And what are the range of services and support on offer apart from our showers, haircuts, hygiene products, socks and jocks, beanies, sleeping bags and mats, tents and backpacks and friendship and social connection?
Hot dinners or takeaway meals, food, fruit, veg and dry goods hampers, laundry, doctors, nurses, social workers, advocacy and support staff, clothing - inner and outers including footwear, hot beverages and soups, and even a footpath library.
It’s the community provides these support services, not the powers that be.
ACCESS BY BUS FROM THE PERTH BUS PORT? THEY DIDN'T EVEN MENTION BUSES.
Technically, you can get to the new location from the Perth bus port on the Yellow Cat – but only at the very end of the line after about 14 stops and a glimpse at the river and Gloucester Park before you turn and head back towards the new location. A bit like going upstairs to go downstairs.
THE POWERS THAT BE MADE NO MENTION THAT ALL OF THESE ATTRIBUTES ALSO MAKE FOR AN IDEAL LOCATION FOR ENCAMPMENTS TO POP UP, conveniently close to a support services hub yet even further away from any community connection and prospective complainants.
While an encampment is an unfortunate necessity for some despite the health and safety risks, such an outcome is not necessarily compatible in conjunction with providers, volunteers and for pensioners, family visitors, guest and patrons.
Yes, it’s hard to work out whether the powers that be didn't foresee this possibility - or foresaw it and choose not to mention it.
The powers that be need to do better. Much better.
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* ‘The powers that be’ in the meeting (that’s certainly not the service providers) included senior representatives from the WA state government’s Office of Major Transport and Infrastructure Delivery (within the Transport Portfolio also held by the Deputy Premier and Treasurer) and the Pulse Alliance responsible for building the new RPH emergency department at Moore St, the Executive Director of the Office of Homelessness (Dept of Communities) and City of Perth staff who are charged with managing the hub location on state land (as is the case with both Moore St and the new location).
We reasonably assume that the new location was approved by the Member for Perth John Carey, former Homelessness Minister, and current Minister for Lands and Planning, Housing and Works and Health Infrastructure (including the new RPH build).
The morning after the meeting, the Mayor of the City of Perth ( who we have never sighted anywhere near Moore St during services) issued a press release declaring the site as suitable.
The press release also quotes John Carey as stating that this location decision was undertaken in close consultation with stakeholders and local homelessness services. Whomever they are, those local homelessness services did not include any of the long-standing Moore St (and previous incarnations at Wellington St and Wellington Sq) service providers.
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Brollie Brigade mobile showers is a project of all-volunteer community group Umbrellas & Footprints Inc.
