Port Phillip council officers are preparing to confiscate the personal belongings of rough sleepers, including bedding, after the city voted last week to give staff the power to seize items under new local laws. The move has put homelessness in St Kilda back at the centre of a fight over safety, public space and how far local government should go in policing life on the street.

Mayor Alex Makin said the council was responding to increased concerns around safety tied to homeless encampments in St Kilda. He said the impact the council was seeking was a safer environment for rough sleepers and for the wider community, and added that the change was not about targeting people sleeping rough but about managing behaviour that can put someone at risk or pose a risk to others.

The decision was close. Five councillors voted in favour of enabling confiscation of possessions and three voted against it at last week’s meeting. The city said items would be stored safely in council service centres or with service providers and could be collected at no charge.

The move comes as Port Phillip faces pressure from a bigger public order problem than much of Victoria. In the year ending June 2025, the city recorded 10,974 criminal incidents per 100,000 people, compared with the Victorian average of 6,814. About 25 people sleep rough in Port Phillip each night, while more stay in cars, couch-surf or rely on crisis accommodation.

That backdrop has sharpened the political argument. A survey conducted by Port Phillip found that 76.1 per cent of 708 respondents opposed the proposed law change, yet the council pressed ahead. Makin said the council could have gone further and simply outlawed rough sleeping, but chose not to. That line has done little to calm criticism from councillors who say the policy will worsen the very problem it is meant to solve.

Councillor Libby Buckingham said the change would add conflict and entrench poverty in the area. She said a punitive approach further isolates people and aggravates the problems that lead them to behave in certain ways. Her warning cuts to the heart of the dispute: whether removing tents, bedding and other belongings will make public spaces safer, or simply make life harder for people already living at the edge.

The council’s new powers are expected to be used this week, turning last week’s vote into immediate action on the ground. For people sleeping rough in Port Phillip, the issue is no longer abstract. Their possessions, and the space they have to keep them, are now at the centre of a local enforcement push that backs away from outright bans on homelessness but still reaches into the most basic parts of daily survival.