Syringes near schools, shuttered shops—locals warn it could be your suburb next
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Content warning: This article contains references to drug use, overdoses, and anti-social behaviour.
Once a lively hub of Vietnamese food and culture, a stretch of Richmond now tells a very different story.
Restaurants once filled with the smell of pho and grilled meats now sit gutted, their doors bolted shut.
And where families once gathered for dinner, drug deals now happen in broad daylight.
The decline of Victoria Street in North Richmond has been swift and confronting.
Once affectionately called Little Saigon, the strip is now defined by shuttered shopfronts, discarded syringes, and anti-social behaviour spilling from the state’s only supervised injecting room.
Businesses that once thrived for decades have either fled or are clinging on behind locked doors.
Some owners told news.com.au they kept their doors closed even during trading hours, letting in customers only if they called from outside.
One restaurant owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said: ‘Every day we’re faced with anti-social behaviour on our doorstep. Our staff don’t feel like coming to work anymore.’
Among the recent closures is Minh Tan II restaurant, which opened in 2017 to much fanfare but now stands empty.
Next door, the Hai Phu butcher and seafood market has also shut, its window now covered with a ‘free rental offer’ sticker.
Dozens of other shopfronts remain vacant, with rents starting at around $25,000 a year for a 99-square-metre space complete with a kitchen.
Locals have long complained that the supervised injecting room—established next to Richmond West Primary School in 2023—has worsened public safety.
Residents have reported overdoses on the footpath, a man entering school grounds with a knife, and another exposing himself outside the school fence.
Christine Maynard, who lives nearby, told a council meeting: ‘You could spend $90 million on Victoria Street to revitalise it but nothing will work until you move the elephant in the room.’
Yarra City Council this week announced $550,000 in funding to revitalise the street by ‘greening and beautifying public spaces, as well as making them safer.’
Mayor Stephen Jolly said: ‘Victoria Street has been crying out for this sort of help for too long, and we can’t wait any longer.’
But Ms Maynard argued the plan was meaningless while locals were footing the bill for clean-ups.
‘This is in relation to the over $3 million that ratepayers are owed in relation to the failed supervised injecting room,’ she said.
‘This is not something that my rates should have to be paying for. I think it’s just disgusting that I’m still sitting here. I know the guys that are down there cleaning up every day.’
Mr Jolly admitted: ‘The supervised injecting facility is definitely a state government facility. That’s correct…When we ask for the $3m for this, we’re asking Dracula not to suck our blood.’
North Richmond Community Health, which operates the facility, said almost 8000 overdoses had been safely managed inside between 2018 and 2023.
But the broader toll remains devastating.
The Coroners Court of Victoria confirmed this week that 584 people died from fatal drug overdoses in 2024—Victoria’s highest in a decade and a 16 per cent increase on 2015 figures.
Business owners say the consequences are clear—families feel unsafe, visitors stay away, and traders who built the area into a thriving Vietnamese hub have been left with little choice but to abandon it.
Ha Nguyen, president of the Victoria Street Business Association, warned: ‘The drug market near the injecting room, with anti-social behaviour daily, create public safety concerns and that undermines liveability and damages our economic prospects.’
When a neighbourhood begins to crumble under pressure, it isn’t just the streetscape that suffers—it often exposes deeper cracks in how people are supported day to day.
The struggle to keep businesses alive in Richmond echoes another pressing concern about how everyday essentials and services are becoming harder to afford.
It’s a different kind of challenge, but one that shows how rising costs can squeeze people long before change ever arrives.
Read more: A 'special' kind of price squeeze is hurting seniors... but is the extra pinch valid?
The street once celebrated as Little Saigon now faces a painful question—can it ever return to the community hub it once was?
Once a lively hub of Vietnamese food and culture, a stretch of Richmond now tells a very different story.
Restaurants once filled with the smell of pho and grilled meats now sit gutted, their doors bolted shut.
And where families once gathered for dinner, drug deals now happen in broad daylight.
The decline of Victoria Street in North Richmond has been swift and confronting.
Once affectionately called Little Saigon, the strip is now defined by shuttered shopfronts, discarded syringes, and anti-social behaviour spilling from the state’s only supervised injecting room.
Businesses that once thrived for decades have either fled or are clinging on behind locked doors.
Richmond’s Little Saigon faces rapid decline. Image source: Facebook/news.com.au
Some owners told news.com.au they kept their doors closed even during trading hours, letting in customers only if they called from outside.
One restaurant owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said: ‘Every day we’re faced with anti-social behaviour on our doorstep. Our staff don’t feel like coming to work anymore.’
Among the recent closures is Minh Tan II restaurant, which opened in 2017 to much fanfare but now stands empty.
Next door, the Hai Phu butcher and seafood market has also shut, its window now covered with a ‘free rental offer’ sticker.
Dozens of other shopfronts remain vacant, with rents starting at around $25,000 a year for a 99-square-metre space complete with a kitchen.
Locals have long complained that the supervised injecting room—established next to Richmond West Primary School in 2023—has worsened public safety.
Residents have reported overdoses on the footpath, a man entering school grounds with a knife, and another exposing himself outside the school fence.
Christine Maynard, who lives nearby, told a council meeting: ‘You could spend $90 million on Victoria Street to revitalise it but nothing will work until you move the elephant in the room.’
Yarra City Council this week announced $550,000 in funding to revitalise the street by ‘greening and beautifying public spaces, as well as making them safer.’
Mayor Stephen Jolly said: ‘Victoria Street has been crying out for this sort of help for too long, and we can’t wait any longer.’
But Ms Maynard argued the plan was meaningless while locals were footing the bill for clean-ups.
‘This is in relation to the over $3 million that ratepayers are owed in relation to the failed supervised injecting room,’ she said.
‘This is not something that my rates should have to be paying for. I think it’s just disgusting that I’m still sitting here. I know the guys that are down there cleaning up every day.’
Mr Jolly admitted: ‘The supervised injecting facility is definitely a state government facility. That’s correct…When we ask for the $3m for this, we’re asking Dracula not to suck our blood.’
North Richmond Community Health, which operates the facility, said almost 8000 overdoses had been safely managed inside between 2018 and 2023.
But the broader toll remains devastating.
The Coroners Court of Victoria confirmed this week that 584 people died from fatal drug overdoses in 2024—Victoria’s highest in a decade and a 16 per cent increase on 2015 figures.
Business owners say the consequences are clear—families feel unsafe, visitors stay away, and traders who built the area into a thriving Vietnamese hub have been left with little choice but to abandon it.
Ha Nguyen, president of the Victoria Street Business Association, warned: ‘The drug market near the injecting room, with anti-social behaviour daily, create public safety concerns and that undermines liveability and damages our economic prospects.’
When a neighbourhood begins to crumble under pressure, it isn’t just the streetscape that suffers—it often exposes deeper cracks in how people are supported day to day.
The struggle to keep businesses alive in Richmond echoes another pressing concern about how everyday essentials and services are becoming harder to afford.
It’s a different kind of challenge, but one that shows how rising costs can squeeze people long before change ever arrives.
Read more: A 'special' kind of price squeeze is hurting seniors... but is the extra pinch valid?
The street once celebrated as Little Saigon now faces a painful question—can it ever return to the community hub it once was?
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