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.