While it is still mercifully rare to see children on the streets, to answer this question you have to return to childhood. The vast majority of adults living on Melbourne's streets have experienced extreme trauma in their lives, often while they were very young. Let's return, for example, to that nine-year-old boy. In the years following his discovery sleeping behind the church, he bounced between foster care and the streets. When he was 10, older men used to pay him to flash himself for money. The same year Salvation Army major Brendan Nottle witnessed him being thrown to the ground and handcuffed by two police officers after a safe custody warrant was issued for his arrest. "He just began to weep uncontrollably and he was then put into the back of a divisional van at the age of 10," Nottle said. "He's blocked out a number of those traumatic incidents from his mind. But I certainly remember them." A 2013 study found that 70 per cent of Melbourne's rough sleepers had experienced childhood sexual or physical abuse. Statistically speaking, there were at least 195 men and 35 women living on Melbourne's streets in June this year. We say "at least" because the council's count only includes about 20 per cent of the municipality, leaving out parks and suburbs where a large numbers of people are known to sleep. These rough sleepers can be loosely placed into three categories: New arrivals:

This can be the woman sleeping in a car with her children, the teenager fleeing a violent home and the guy that has suddenly lost his job and the roof over his head. "They have an expectation that their time sleeping rough will be temporary. Few have any prior knowledge of support services, or experience navigating the system," Melbourne City Mission's Sherri Bruinhout said. These people are often vulnerable to exploitation. The young homeless woman who is studying year 11 at RMIT in her tent. Credit:Justin McManus Ejected by the system: Those people who have been discharged from prisons, hospitals, detox facilities with nowhere to go. Frequent flyers:

It is a sad reality that most of Melbourne's rough sleepers are disillusioned veterans, with frequent stints homeless, totalling many years. In 2015 and 2016, close to half of the people living on the streets in central Melbourne had been homeless for more than five years. Often by then their childhood trauma and disadvantage has manifested itself in other serious problems such a mental illness and drug addiction, and they have been on the streets so long that it's become their "home" and their social network. NCH NEWS. Pic shows a homeless man with his belongings packed beside him in the bush campsite which he shares with two other men at Camp Stockland, behind Horseshoe Beach. Police and council rangers today gave them notice to relocate. Newcastle. 31st March 2015. NCH. NEWCASTLE. Pic by MAX MASON-HUBERS MMH Credit:Max Mason Hubers MMH I've heard that some people have rejected housing assistance. Is this true? Yes and no. Despite recent promises of "guaranteed housing" for some people sleeping rough in the CBD, permanent homes are generally not on offer. National statistics show only 6 per cent of those who seek permanent housing from homelessness services receive it. There is also a shortage of emergency accommodation – with five or six homeless people for every one social housing property available. "As a result, homelessness agencies utilise rooming houses and cheap hotels to fill the gap," Ms Bruinhout said. "Clients sometimes refuse these offers for a variety of reasons, for example; they feel unsafe, they have stayed previously and had a bad experience, they have children, they feel the $200-250 per week rent for a single room with shared bathroom is not good value for money." Loading

Are Melbourne's beggars really homeless? The Salvation Army probed this issue last year and found the majority (60 per cent) could be verified as homeless. Others were classified "at risk" or living on very low incomes. Many who begged said they did so for food, tobacco and alcohol, and would rather "beg than do crime". The exception was a small group of about nine "professional" and "persistent" beggars who were begged for an income, rather than as a survival tool. Sydney has the biggest homeless population in Australia. Credit:Penny Stephens