Less than three people a night were treated at Victorian sobering up centres on average during the first year they opened, despite the facilities being able to take on more than two dozen patients.
Opposition leader Brad Battin slammed the empty beds as a sign of a failing system, but the government insists it shows outreach programs have been a success.
There were 1040 separate stays across the facilities in Collingwood, St Kilda and on-demand services in regional Victoria from November 7, 2023 to October 30, 2024.
That averages out to 2.9 people per night, with facilities capable of treating 26 patients at once.
Workers responded to 24,600 instances of drunk people needing other supports during that time.
Over the most recent New Year celebrations, nine people attended the centres and outreach teams helped 280 people.
Victoria decriminalised public drunkenness in November 2023 and replaced it with a health-based response funded to the tune of $88.3 million over three years, centred around outreach teams and the sobering up centres.
The changes were sparked by the death of Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day who was arrested for being drunk in a public place and died after hitting her head in a concrete cell at Castlemaine Police Station in 2017.
In June 2024, a man was struck by a car and died at an intersection at Wyndham Vale after he was turned away from a sobering up centre due to safety reasons.
Victoria decriminalised public drunkenness in 2023 and funded sobering up centres. (Con Chronis/AAP PHOTOS)
Opposition Leader Brad Battin claimed the new system had no effect on changing what happens to drunk people and called for police to have greater powers to “take people off the street who they believe are vulnerable”.
“The whole system is failing,” Mr Battin told reporters at Parliament on Monday.
“People who are in the most vulnerable position, if they’re drunk in the community, need protection”.
Government minister Steve Dimopoulos said the sobering up centres were important for a small number of people and need to exist to prevent deaths in custody.
“It’s a success if there are less people using it over time, because the message is getting through and the outreach is getting through,” he said.