There are 25000 homeless people in Victoria and 80000 empty homes. Protesters for public housing in Melbourne are taking matters into their own handsSome of the recent residents of 2 Bendigo Street,Collingwood are gathered out the front when I arrive for my visit to the house. The elder among the eight or so men and women I encounter – one of whom has mane of silver hair and a beard and maintains, despite his cheap wraparound sunglasses, and a grand,Gandalfesque air – are in deckchairs, chatting, or soaking up some Melbourne sunshine. The younger are pottering about with a small plot of plants in a box,or coming in and out of the house with stacks of chairs and mugs of tea for their seated seniors.
I’m not the only visitor; some of the neighbours hold stopped for a chat. As a first impression it’s tough not to be struck that such a bustling, visible and intergenerational community – remembered so clearly from my own suburban Australian childhood – is now a rare sight in our modern suburbia.
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Source: theguardian.com