full "Cool Hotel Chaos" (Australia)

"Cool Hotel Chaos" (Australia) Long story

This is the story of the end of the legendary Gatwick Private Hotel in Melbourne. Its owners, twin sisters Rose Banks and Yvette Kelly, have sheltered for 20 years those who had nowhere to go: penniless people, drug addicts, prostitutes, ex-convicts. The Gatwick has been a gateway for many, and a house for decades for others. In the fast-gentrifying neighborhood of Saint-Kilda, the building became spoilsport. Its notorious reputation precipitated its fall. The sisters felt forced to sell the property. Channel 9 bought the building for its reality show The Block. The 1930s hotel, currently under renovation, will be split into luxurious apartments.

Dave, from Fiji, has been sleeping at the Gatwick intermittently for 3 years. "We are lucky to have a roof and free meals". "I love wildlife documentaries, here we are like animals, we hunt money in the streets". Dave was sent to jail a few weeks after this photo was taken. Many say he is innocent, he would have taken the heat for someone else. February 2017.

Allan, who lives and works at the Gatwick as a janitor, repairs for the ninth time a window of the front door. Allan arrived at the Gatwick 27 years ago. "Devastated" by its closing, he finds the place "Extraordinary: Rose and Yvette are doing their best." Yvette, 60, the Gatwick co-owner, is asking residents and non-residents to make less noise on the street. February 2017.

Dany has just been released from prison, he is addicted to crystal meth. For him, the hotel is a magical place, where a person has to "make a wish at the exact moment when the sun lights the stained glass windows", the place is "screwed up by drugs". May 2017.

Jennifer, a 57 year old transsexual and "former member of the Special Forces," began prostituting herself at the age of 22. She works in Saint-Kilda. She does not live in the Gatwick, but goes there every day to talk, rest, and take drugs. This is her "Hotel Chaos", she rephrases "Cool Hotel Chaos". March 2017.

Dave, 48, has just arrived at the Gatwick where he was sent by a charity center. The Gatwick often hosts people in trouble when there are no more places in the emergency centers.December 2016.

Darren in his room; he finds the Gatwick "exciting". He was relocated after the Gatwick's closure. March 2017.

Darren's room. The rooms serve as meeting places and drop-off points. May 2017.

In the lodge, Darren asks Yvette for some money. Every day, Yvette and Rose donate some coins to residents who want to buy cigarettes or drinks at the 7-Eleven across the street. March 2017.

In Darren's room, on the first floor, Rose, 60, Yvette's twin sister, was asked to change a light bulb. May 2017.

Allan and Yvette have just discovered a hole in the toilet ceiling. Every morning goes with a lot of surprises. The addicts to crystal meth. often destroy mirrors, toilets, and walls. April 2017.

Duncan, 64, a former accountant, has been at the Gatwick for 14 months. An "awesome" place. He is always hanging out with Rose and Yvette. He imagines how to improve the building. Alcohol sometimes drives him to action, with mixed results.May 2017.

A young woman just bought drinks at the 7-Eleven store opposite the Gatwick. The surrounding shops accuse Gatwick residents of scaring customers and stealing.
March 2017.

Brandon, 37, has already spent a year and a half at the Gatwick, a "sanctuary". "I'll miss the place, not the people, ... except Rose and Yvette". The closure makes him "melancholic". On the day of his departure, he wrote two short letters to the twin sisters to thank them. He was relocated near St. Kilda after the closure. January 2017.

Tiani, 31, from Queensland, prepares herself in one of the shared bathrooms to go out. She is staying with friends at the Gatwick. A complicated family story brought her to Melbourne. The Gatwick is her new "family", where she has "perhaps the youth that [she] never had". She was a mother at 16, her 3 children are currently with their grandmother. "Here, we can forget the outside world". December 2016.

Arthur, 70, leaves soon. He is packing his 26 years at the Gatwick. He is proud of his LPs and the letters he wrote, up to 100 per month, to TV stars, cricket players, and even to the Queen of England. He keeps preciously their answers, mostly receipts, in shoe boxes. He writes poems too. "One day, they will discover my work and say: what a great poet! We should have invited him on TV. "And then he recalls:" Arf, they do not like poetry on TV, they are just a bunch of idiots. " April 2017.

Charleze, 50 , spent 2 years at the Gatwick, "her home sweet home". She found an apartment near Saint Kilda.
January 2016.

Joy, an aboriginal lady, (right) smokes a cigarette with a friend in a shared bathroom. She has recently arrived at the Gatwick, but already considers the place as "her second home". May 2017.

Darren (left), Charleze (center) and Shirley (right, Joy's aunt) chat on the first floor. April 2017.

Mickael was suffering from an addiction to crystal meth. He died of an overdose a few weeks after this photo.
January 2017.

Yvette, 60, is in charge of all the linen at the Gatwick. No subcontractor wants this job for fear of forgotten syringes. February 2017.

Pierro, 56, one year at the Gatwick, his "paradise". His room is impeccable, "I am obsessed with cleaning". "Because of crystal meth. people are always awake. As I am insomniac, I always have someone to talk to." Relocated to Forest Hill by social services, he found the new place "boring" and decided to return to the Gatwick. He injured his hand, jumping in front of a train. April 2017.

Duncan, 64, in his room where he puts what he collects in the street. April 2017.

The lying person, convulsive, asked Nick the Greek to contain him. Nick has known the Gatwick for 8 years. The Gatwick? "A roller coaster", but also "a roof over his head and a meal". Yvette and Rose are his "mothers". He has a place outside the Gatwick, but always comes back. May 2017.

Yvette cuts residents' hair for free. The night watchman, 55-year-old Mickael, was 17 when he first arrived at the Gatwick. He returned there 6 years after his divorce. His best memory about the Gatwick? "People. All have a good side, you just have to find it. Sometimes you have to dig a long time (laughs)." February 2017.