Pubdate: Mon, 4 Jan 1998 Source: Herald Sun (Australia) Page: 14-15 Copyright: News Limited 1998 Contact: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ Author: John Beveridge STREET KIDS BEG FOR ATTENTION KAOS licks his finger, swipes at a fresh needle track on the inside of his elbow and tells Melbourne workers why they can't walk to the train without being hit for money. "It's the schoolies," he complains, as his eyes struggle to focus due to the effects of a heroin hit taken moments before, just metres from the Melbourne Town Hall. "They come in here dressed as street kids and start scabbing up to the workers." Kaos should know. After six years on the prowl around Swanston St, the 23 year old admits to being a pioneer of 'scabbing up' - a form of aggressive panhandling or begging that has become an ugly and common feature on Melbourne's streets. Together with his girlfriend, Emma, 22, they are experts at the best lines to extract cash from Melbourne's half a million commuters. The most hectic begging happens during the day but in the small hours of the night when people pour out of the clubs in King St and walk through what some call the devil's playground on Swanston St, the alcohol and drug fuelled begging can quickly become a violent fight or robbery. AND on the night the Herald Sun spent in Swanston St, you would not like to depend on police to save you from trouble. Apart from a few "patrols" by a marked car down Swanston St, there was no visible police presence on the street. Street robberies of the so called soft targets - pedestrians, people using ATMs and women with handbags - are up 34.8 per cent in the past year and that doesn't include "scabbing up". Street robberies are one of the few growth areas among Victoria's enviably low crime rates and there seems little doubt things will keep getting worse. The competition from the wannabe street kids, who use their begged money for drugs and then return home to bed, has led to an escalation in the ferocity of the begging - and the abuse and possible violence that people face simply by strolling along Swanston St. Emma admits she now turns nasty if people ignore her pleas for money, hurling embarrassing abuse in their direction. BUT once she didn't need to bite back so hard. On a good day she could get up to $300 for her pleas for help - pleas that ranged from a train fare home to food money. Now Emma faces a string of fines and convictions, more street-wise commuters and stronger competition from schoolies. For her, Swanston St is no longer the boulevard of dreams it once was. Still, she and Kaos keep up a regular daily routine, which he describes as "scabbing up, getting some drugs and food, and sleeping out". Another couple, Dave, 20, and Melinda, 19, are a study in contrast. Dave is the sort of guy you warm to straight away - he takes some pride in his appearance and cleanliness, despite some nasty front tooth fractures. Every day he sweeps the portico and stairs of the impressive white facade of the Collins St Baptist Church. "I want to keep this clean, it is where we sleep." Dave explained as he stored a folded cardboard box that doubles as a mattress. "It isn't easy though, when kids come from everywhere and leave needles lying around.". Dave has kind words for members of the Baptist Church, who serve a lunch for street kids and also put on a dinner occasionally. Chewing on KFC that was a prerequisite for an interview, Dave becomes reflective with a warning to anyone contemplating life on the streets. "I just wish I could go back to being 10 years old again and do things different," he said. There are strict rules he sticks to - never go scabbing unless you really have to, use heroin and grass occasionally but don't become an addict, keep up with your family, get laboring work where you can and try to live on the dole, When photographer Craig Borrow and I return at 2.30am, Dave is sitting half asleep on the steps with a 16-year-old, Cain, while Melinda sleeps fitfully under some blankets. A group of neat schoolboys walks up and one of them spoils for a fight with us, saying we are rude for not talking to him. THE noise from the argument rouses Dave and Cain and they stand loyally with their KFC sugar daddies. All of a sudden the fight goes out of the schoolboy and he backs off, still hurling abuse. He has glimpsed a possible future - that of a panhandler who grabs what he can and sleeps in hard places. Hopefully it is a future he will discard once the booze wears off. - --- MAP posted-by: Patrick Henry