+ Homeless people are responsible for their own predicament

Homelessness is a multidimensional and complex problem. It is the product of a variety of interwoven structural and individual factors such as lack of adequate and affordable accommodation, loss of employment, sexual abuse, hazardous drug and alcohol use, grief and loss, domestic violence, family breakdown and mental health. No one chooses to be homeless.

+ Homeless people are 'bludgers' who leech off the system

Many of those affected by homelessness go on to resume productive employment, become stabilised in housing once secured and enter into voluntary work.

+ Most of those who are homeless choose to be

The majority are poor and have experienced a health problem or a financial shock, or cannot stay at home because of violence or abuse and cannot afford alternative accommodation.

+ Most people experiencing homelessness are drug addicts or alcoholics

About 60 per cent of people who are homeless do not have a drug or alcohol problem and of those that do, the majority develop this after they become homeless.

+ There is plenty of emergency accommodation in Melbourne

At present, if you show up at any homelessness service in Melbourne looking for crisis accommodation you will be unlikely to find a bed for the night. Crisis accommodation is almost always fully booked. It can take weeks or months to obtain a crisis bed. Unfortunately, this has been true for many year.

There are fewer than 400 crisis accommodation beds for adults in Melbourne. Yet there are about 23,000 people without permanent housing in Victoria. We also know that about 8000 people are living in unsafe and inappropriate dwellings, from back garden sheds to ramshackle houses without power or water.

A staggering 30,000 people are on the Victorian public housing waiting list