Darlinghurst: Development Applications: 234 Bourke Street Part Two

A letter-box war has erupted over the future of this insignificant terrace house on Bourke Street with fliers being dropped in mailboxes arguing for and against its proposed use as a sex-worker drop-in centre. I wrote about the proposed development last week after seeing the first flier from the Bourke Street Collective (BSC), which was opposed to the Hope Street organisation's plans to turn the residential house into a safe place for street prostitutes. Since then three more fliers have landed in mail-boxes on the street.

The first flier was from the East Sydney Neighbourhood Association (ESNA) who write that it is ''naive'' to think that the proposed centre would not attract more prostitutes to the area, bringing with them ''more drugs, more syringes, more pimps, more clients.
''Is that what we want to deal with as residents on a day to day basis?''.
The second flier arrived on Wednesday and was from ''Various Other Local Residents'' who back the drop-in centre and write that ''encouraging appropriate, proactive policies and projects to help improve the lives of those in our own backyard is the right thing to do.''
They call for some perspective on the issue: ''SCEGGS moved here in 1901 and has flourished, despite the area being, ever since the development of the Victoria Barracks in the 1840s, a noted and ongoing hub for prostitution.
''And of course no historical tour of Darlinghurst is complete without passing by the one-time residence of Tilly Devine, infamous 1920s (right up until 1968) Palmer Street prostitute and madam, just a street down from this proposed development.
''Implying that sex workers present a new, alien or surprising set of problems that belong elsewhere, or will go elsewhere any time soon, is inaccurate and looks self serving.''

The third flier arrived within 24 hours and was signed by a group who ''call ourselves the majority of local residents and we bashfully remain as equally anonymous as 'Various Other Local Residents'.''
''We regret we are as cowardly as 'Various Other Local Residents' who do not reveal who they are, unlike the community groups who truly work for the direct benefit of local residents such as BSC and ESNA.''
The flier goes on to say that the proposed drop-in centre would not ''dilute'' the problem of street prostitution but ''has the potential to aggravate it''.
They also address the perspective issue from the previous flier and write, ''The fact that East Sydney has a history of illegal activities (which includes prostitution) does not legitimise or give credence to its past.
''Today's local community needs and wants have significantly evolved and they do not warrant a sex-worker drop in centre.''

Personally, I don't think it is an appropriate place for a sex-worker drop-in centre as the block is residential. I am not in denial about sex-workers, I am happy for them to stay in the area, but if I was living in the house next door, I wouldn't want any commercial enterprise, charity, church or business - for sex-workers or anyone - moving in, as there would be people milling around outside all the time.
I don't see why they just don't sell the house, make over $1million and then buy something in a commercial area and set up the drop-in centre there. I suspect the only reason it is planned for this location is because the house is owned by the Reverend Noreen Towers and she has donated it to Hope Street for their use.
Anyway, all of that doesn't matter because the exhibition period for the development application closed on Friday. 

Darlinghurst: Development Applications: 234 Bourke Street

A group calling itself the Bourke Street Collective has been letter-boxing houses and apartments on that street with a flier detailing their opposition to a proposed sex worker drop-in centre.

The development application for the drop-in centre was submitted to the City of Sydney council on May 16 by the Woolloomooloo-based Hope Street organisation. 

Hope Street, which is run by the Baptist church, wants to turn a terrace house at 234 Bourke Street into a support and counselling centre for street-based sex workers from 8am to 4pm.

The house last traded in 1977 for $23,000 and is privately owned by the Reverend Noreen Towers. It is zoned residential, but is just around the corner from the Liverpool Street sex-workers's beat, which according to the collective, police are actively targeting.

In the flier, the Bourke Street Collective said they are ''very concerned about the negative affect this proposed facility would have on the safety and amenity'' of the street, which is in a residential area and close to SCEGGS junior school and across the road from a child care centre. They believe such a drop-in centre would be more appropriately located on William, Victoria or Oxford streets.

''The reality is that the sex workers are often drug addicted, desperate and hostile,'' the Bourke Street Collective writes.

''The facility will invariably result in these women loitering on the street . . . these women often fight with each other while working on the street, and often abuse the general public.

''Centres that attract sex-workers will reverse much of the hard work the police have been doing to reduce sex workers on the streets.

''It will also make it hard for police to move sex-workers on when working on the streets, as when a sex-worker is stopped by police the woman will simply be able to say to the police that she was 'on her way to the Women's Space'.

''The facility will tend to attract the men seeking out the sex-workers, as they will learn that sex-workers are coming and going from the centre from early in the morning.''

The collective ends by saying that they are not opposed to the ''concept'' of the drop-in centre as they ''are conscious of the need to help these marginalised women''. They just don't want it in their backyard.

The development application is on exhibition until June 10 and can be viewed at the council's site here.