Victoria's Mornington Peninsula is known for being a popular holiday destination, a place where people can spend tens of millions of dollars on clifftop mansions in its more exclusive areas.
Hidden from that rosy view are the 1,000 people who, the council says, are sleeping rough in tents and cars along the peninsula every night.
Wilbur is one of them.
The 25-year-old has been homeless for about two years, since he had to move out of his parents' place at Safety Beach.
He's been living in a tent on the Rosebud foreshore, about 90 kilometres south-east of Melbourne's CBD, for about six months.
Working four days a week at a local cafe and living with mental illness, Wilbur said he worked hard to have a positive attitude to being homeless, because it was the only way to get by.
"It takes time to perfect how well you can train your mind, to resist getting tortured by the wind and the weather, you've got to train yourself," he said.
He said he loved his community of people sleeping in tents on the foreshore at Rosebud.
"There's six of us and we're very tight, we're very close," he said.
He said his friends had taught him how to survive, including how to tie down all his belongings to get through nights when the winds whip up along Port Philip Bay.
"The wind is the worst, because it's very unpredictable and it's coming straight from the sea — and it really does blow us away," he said.
But he said there were "horrors", including the time when he woke up while someone was rummaging inside his tent.
It's why he said the name of the beachside community is apt.
"I depict it as a rose," he said.
"Rosebud is very beautiful and it's very pretty, and it's lively but it's also very dangerous, it's got a lot of thorns."
When the pubs close in the early hours of the morning, the area could get "pretty sketchy", he said.
A place of extreme contrasts
Follow the quiet bay along from the tents in the bushes for about 15km, and you'll get to Sorrento, where the median house price is $2.5 million.
Mornington Peninsula Shire Councillor Sarah Race said the demographic divide was unique to the peninsula.
"You've got people in $30 million houses and you've got people living in tents on the foreshore," she said.
In June, the Mornington Peninsula was home to the top 10 suburbs for price growth in greater Melbourne.
Ms Race said that increase in prices was making inequality worse.
"Because of COVID, people have moved down and bought houses in the once-cheap areas — and those cheap areas aren't cheap anymore," she said.
"You used to be able to buy a three-bedroom house for about $500,000 — now those houses are worth more than a million dollars."
It's no easier for people looking to rent.
The council said there were only three rental properties advertised in the past year that were affordable for people on low incomes, and the average price of a rental had increased by 30 per cent.
"We've got kids growing up in cars," Ms Race said.
"It's diabolical and it can't go on."
The council is calling on both sides of politics in the lead-up to the state election to commit $100 million for social and affordable housing on the peninsula, as well as funding for crisis accommodation and support services.
There are almost 4,000 people on the social housing waiting list on the Mornington Peninsula.
Lack of government funding
Jeremy Maxwell is the chief executive of Southern Peninsula Community Support and Information Centre, which provides support to Wilbur and other people sleeping rough around Rosebud.
The centre is a rabbit warren of offices with numbers to call for financial counsellors and drug and alcohol support, the shelves in the back room are stacked high with packs of donated baby clothes and tinned food.
He said people outside the peninsula did not understand how tough some in the community were doing it.
"We're bookended by some of the wealthiest communities, with some of the most disadvantaged in the middle," he said.
He said that made it difficult to attract funding from state and federal governments, so his organisation relied on donations — not only of money, but also coats, sleeping bags and tents.
"The level of government funding is zero — not a single dollar comes for people who are homeless or sleeping rough," he said.
He said if governments would not increase his funding, he hoped the community would come through.
"If you give me a dollar, I will spend it," he said.
"If you give me a thousand dollars, I will spend it. If you give me a million dollars I can spend it, and we still won't get to where we need to get."
As well as supporting rough sleepers, Mr Maxwell's organisation supports about 1,300 local families who are dealing with housing stress, giving them food, clothes and other support.
"We're fighting really hard to make sure they can eat properly and have other things taken care of so they don't end up joining the homeless group of people," he said.
"There's quite a lot of people behind the homeless people who are at risk, and they are the people affordable housing would make a huge difference for."
A spokesperson for the state Department of Families, Fairness and Housing said there were 1,437 social homes in the Mornington Peninsula Shire already, and more were being built.
"The Big Housing Build is adding 26 new homes in the local government area that are either completed or under construction and we will continue to work constructively with the council," they said.
Teal independent candidate for the seat of Mornington, Kate Lardner, said there was a housing crisis on the peninsula.
"Increasing supply while preventing urban sprawl — protecting our Green Wedge — is essential," she said.
"As is providing more affordable and crisis accommodation, measures to further regulate Airbnb and incentives for landlords to offer longer term lease options."
The ABC contacted the opposition for comment.
As just one of the faces of the crisis, Wilbur said he wanted people to know he was dealing with his mental health issues, and worked four days a week "flipping eggs and bacon" at a local cafe.
"It's great work and I'm really connected to the community," he said.
He said he wanted people to understand that the people he knew who were homeless were trying their best.
"We all want to see each other improve," he said.
