{"id":76838,"date":"2026-08-20T23:34:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T23:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/76838\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T23:34:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T23:34:22","slug":"restaurants-warn-salvos-bourke-st-funding-will-poison-strip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/76838\/","title":{"rendered":"Restaurants warn Salvos Bourke St funding will \u2018poison\u2019 strip"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Salvation Army\u2019s Bourke St cafe has won an eleventh-hour reprieve, despite a neighbouring restaurant warning the soup kitchen will lead to the \u201cslow poisoning\u201d of businesses in the \u2018Paris End\u2019 of the city.<\/p>\n

The future of the Salvos twilight cafe \u2013 which provides meals to the homeless at night \u2013 was thrown into doubt<\/a> when the City of Melbourne awarded $6m to move its homelessness services to VincentCare\u2019s Ozanam House in North Melbourne.<\/p>\n

But on Tuesday, Melbourne councillors voted to provide $109,000 in \u201cbridge funding\u201d to keep the Salvos temporarily operating<\/a> from its Bourke St home, where it has been since 1895.<\/p>\n

The owner of Spaghetti Tree, Krunal Chaudhary, said he has been forced to stop seating diners on the footpath due to the abuse from homeless people who gather at the Salvos cafe.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the night when my staff tried to pack up for the night there would be people sitting on the seats and would get violent when approached,\u201d Mr Chaudhary said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne man pushed my staff member and threw coffee on him, another time he raged and started throwing around the furniture.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he said removing the al fresco dining hadn\u2019t stopped the abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just walk in and start harassing our staff and there is only so much I can do to keep them safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like a slow poisoning, it\u2019s just ruining the businesses around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Chaudhary said he has been forced to call the police more than 10 times in the last six months, typically at night.<\/p>\n

In April, Amir Morkos was forced to shut down his restaurant, Pizza Vacanza, after daily attacks on staff made it impossible to operate safely.<\/p>\n

Mr Morkos opened his Bourke St restaurant two doors down from The Salvos in January and immediately faced issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to call the police nearly every single day that we were open,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would think the council would care that Bourke Street, in a great part of the city, was being damaged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the daily occurrences Mr Morkos faced included people touching and stealing food from the bain-marie, someone spitting in his face and people smoking and injecting drugs on his doorstep.<\/p>\n

Mr Morkos even chased a thief and suffered a broken finger as a result.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe shops need help, they are all suffering,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they (Salvos) were to close in September I would love to come back, I lost my business, I lost my money, my income. Now I call friends for work to get by instead of sitting home and thinking about my pizza shop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salvation Army Commanding Officer Brendan Nottle told the Herald Sun that he had sympathy for the traders and encouraged them to contact him when they had issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese incidents are not isolated to our part of the city,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people reach out to us if we have issue, we immediately respond. We have zero tolerance for anti-social activity, right across the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maj Nottle had accused Lord Mayor Nick Reece of breaking a promise to award $6m to its Bourke St cafe made during his 2024 election campaign.<\/p>\n

But after an open tender process for the program, the money was awarded to VincentCare Victoria to run its Ozanam House facility, a move that could have shut off the lights after hours at the Bourke St cafe.<\/p>\n

The Ozanam House facility has 170 rooms and dental, mental health and job services, however it closes mid-afternoon, while the Salvos cafe offers a late-night meal service.<\/p>\n

After Maj Nottle\u2019s public criticism, Mr Reece backtracked, bringing forward a motion at Tuesday night\u2019s Future Melbourne Committee meeting to provide the \u201cbridge funding\u201d to keep the Salvos cafe operating.<\/p>\n

But even the emergency lifeline may not be enough to ensure the future of the cafe, with an amendment being added forcing the provider to minimise the impact on surrounding businesses.<\/p>\n

Maj Nottle said it would not affect his chances at the tender, telling the Herald Sun \u201cwe are absolutely committed to maintaining cleanliness and amenity\u201d.<\/p>\n

He warned that if the funding vanishes homelessness in the area would not \u201cmagically disappear\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll remain in the city and they\u2019ll remain without support and they\u2019ll become an increasing issue for the community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think first of all this is actually not about dollars. It\u2019s about 200 plus people a night that will be going without not just a meal but wraparound support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s meeting also heard from Bourke St resident, Lyn Gazal, who said she had lived opposite the Salvos facility for 24 years and that her grandchildren would not visit her apartment because they \u201ccannot walk past the Salvation Army at times because we are abused\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI live diagonally opposite, and we have people sleeping in our hall, in our actual entrance,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like urination at the front door, I don\u2019t like my 11, 13, and 15-year-old granddaughters having to visit grandmother and there are two massage parlours outside my door.<\/p>\n

At the meeting Mr Reece said that while VincentCare was delivering \u201cmore meals than ever\u201d he conceded that \u201ca gap has been identified in after hours meals services\u201d in the CBD.<\/p>\n

While the vote was successful the saga will drag out at least another week as the Future Melbourne Committee cannot actually approve the funding, meaning it needs to be brought before a regular council meeting on Tuesday next week.<\/p>\n

Famous Melbourne chef and restaurateur Guy Grossi<\/a>, who led a campaign in 2023 against the Bourke Street safe injecting rooms, expressed surprise at hearing about the Salvation Army HQ relocation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a high density area, with school kids getting off trams and families going to shows, it\u2019s not ideal. It\u2019s better to have it somewhere where it can be policed properly and in close access to proper health authorities to give it the support it needs,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Mr Grossi\u2019s longstanding restaurant empire, including Florentino and Cellar Bar, was located opposite the proposed injecting room site on Bourke St.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never had an issue with the Salvation Army being there, they always do great work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Salvation Army\u2019s Bourke St cafe has won an eleventh-hour reprieve, despite a neighbouring restaurant warning the 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