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  • 1 year ago
From sleeping bags by playgrounds to tents pitched at caravan parks, the signs of Queensland’s housing crisis are impossible to ignore. Across the state, local councils have reached their limits, dispersing camps of people sleeping rough.

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00:01It's early Tuesday morning in the fast-growing city of Harvey Bay.
00:07Josie Street is getting ready to do her rounds.
00:11So you've got a water, one of each of those, and a sandwich in the bag.
00:16Twice a week, the retiree drives around to the growing number of people sleeping rough.
00:22All of them are very grateful for what they receive.
00:25I think it's somebody else to talk to.
00:28It's something that they can wake up and say,
00:30oh, today's Tuesday and Thursday, Josie will be doing her rounds today.
00:37Today, she'll visit more than 70 people.
00:40She always comes across new faces in need of basic essentials.
00:45Some of them with their stories and that, it's just so sad,
00:49particularly when you come across there's a...
00:52Sorry, I'll probably get a crock.
00:55It takes just minutes before someone else calls for help.
00:59PHONE RINGS
01:00Hello.
01:01Oh, hello. Josie speaking.
01:03Oh, Josie. I'm Carol. Carol Webster.
01:06Oh, what's the best time to catch up with you?
01:09Carol Webster cares for her 30-year-old son, Brendan, who has Down syndrome.
01:14The pair sleep in her car when they're not staying with family.
01:18We're living at my son's couch surfing.
01:21That's where Brendan sleeps.
01:23Sometimes he doesn't even want to wake up.
01:25He's so depressed.
01:27With the city's rental vacancy at 0.9%.
01:30She's all but given up on applying for homes.
01:33As soon as you say, well, I'm homeless, I really need a house,
01:36I don't want nothing to do with you.
01:38They think you're dirty or something,
01:40and that's how it makes me feel like we're dirty.
01:42We know that there's nothing permanent,
01:45but, you know, you can't stay in one spot too long.
01:50Homeless for five years, Stephen Gallagher is part of a group
01:53that was recently moved on from a park by the Fraser Coast Council.
01:58I don't even really know where to go.
02:00I don't know where else to go.
02:02The council here says the rough sleepers were moved on
02:05in the interests of public safety
02:07after two men were jailed for assaulting council employees.
02:11But advocates fear crackdowns on the rights of those in homeless camps
02:15are becoming more prevalent across the state.
02:18Councils have reached a threshold where the management of public space
02:21is getting more difficult.
02:23We urge them not just to move people on, though,
02:25because they move to other places
02:27and cause the same challenges for another local government.
02:30Already stretched far too thin...
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