Editor’s view: Housing should be far bigger priority

The unscrupulous opportunists that are illegally renting backyards and sheds to desperate people facing homelessness is a revelation that should send shockwaves through our politicians.

If there was any doubt left that all levels of government need to be doing so much more to help with the housing crisis, surely today puts that debate to rest.

That unscrupulous opportunists are now illegally renting back yards and sheds to desperate people facing homelessness otherwise is a revelation that should send shockwaves through Canberra and down William and George streets.

These are spaces without access to running water, toilets and showers, but being advertised for upwards of $200 per week on online platforms such as Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree.

It makes for sickening yet sobering reading as it provides an alarming insight into the degree to which governments have failed to ensure one of life’s basic needs – shelter – is available for a rapidly growing number of Queenslanders.

Tents with homeless people living inside at a park in Wynnum, east of Brisbane. pic: Lyndon Mechielsen/Courier Mail

And it is not just the attraction of moving here that has led to this situation. We also reveal today that fewer new homes were built in the state last year than at almost any other point in the past decade – little wonder median rents on existing properties have hit a record high, as we also report today.

Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon counters that the Miles government has taken a range of measures to increase the delivery of new homes and had cut red tape, including by “allowing secondary flats to be rented and new pathways to develop social and affordable housing”. And yes, the government is certainly far more focused on this issue, thanks to The Courier-Mail’s relentless campaigning on it.

But so much more needs to be done – and on a wider scale – to address this backlog of housing constructions that for the moment has left many Queenslanders as sitting ducks for opportunists out to make a quick dollar on the fact they cannot find any other options.

Those working with those most at risk confirm this is a very real issue. Karyn Walsh is the chief executive of Micah Projects, a not-for-profit organisation that works to prevent homelessness. She confirms people are increasingly seeking help after being charged ridiculous amounts of money for substandard living arrangements.

Paula, who is homeless and has lived with her husband in a van for the last few years at Wynnum, east of Brisbane. The couple became homeless after her husband lost his job and they are unable to afford rent now on one income. Pic: Lyndon Mechielsen/Courier Mail

This is Queensland. It beggars belief that it has come to this.

Obviously, those seeking to do wrong must be stopped as a priority. As our investigation found, most of these dodgy accommodation options are being advertised as space for storage – and usually at a fraction of the cost you are actually quoted when you make an inquiry.

There will always be grubby behaviour in times of calamity – the looting of businesses and properties in the flood-stricken Far North in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Jasper in December is but one example.

But more must be done to firstly, bring these illegal would-be slumlords to justice.

But more broadly, so much more needs to be done to address this crisis – and with far more urgency.

Those building statistics referred to previously are from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. They reveal there were only 32,411 new dwellings built in Queensland in the year to last September. That has usually been almost 40,000.

Now, the truth here – that Labor administrations are often too slow to realise – is that these properties are built by the private sector, not the government as public housing.

The government then must avoid demonising home builders and developers, and instead work with them on some real solutions.

It must also undo the ridiculously generous deals it has done with the militant construction union that have seen labour costs soar right across the sector. The irony is that in seeking to avoid a showdown with the CFMEU, this government has instead made victims of those everyday Queenslanders just looking for a roof over their heads.