Opinion: City of Moreton Bay Council’s bulldozer approach to homeless is simply heartless

Homelessness isn’t a crime, it’s a crisis. Councils must choose to be part of the solution, writes Sam Tracy. VOTE IN OUR POLL

An excavator moves in at Eddie Hyland Park.

Is this how we should respond to homelessness?

At Eddie Hyland Park, just north of Brisbane, council rangers recently rolled in with an excavator, garbage truck and police escorts. Their mission? Not to clean up litter or do works – but to dismantle, destroy and discard homeless people’s only possessions. And move them on.

Carol, who had been living in the park, was given an hour to collect her things.

“Everything I own was in that tent,” she told the ABC, as her shelter and stability disappeared into the back of a waste truck.

In March, the City of Moreton Bay Council quietly repealed important homelessness frameworks.

The result was that homelessness, in effect, became an offence.

There is now growing alarm about similar action from nearby councils like Brisbane – where Musgrave Park was recently cleared out – and the Gold Coast.

Across Queensland, the housing crisis is growing. Rents have skyrocketed. Emergency accommodation is stretched. Social housing is woefully underfunded.

People like Shane, who has been on the social housing waiting list for two years, now face fines of over $8000 for sleeping in a tent.

If they don’t move on, their belongings can be confiscated or destroyed.

The council says it is taking a compassionate approach, though what we see is the City of Moreton Bay laws being used to punish people for being poor – which is why we are calling for calm, restraint and a ceasing of the compliance enforcement.

This needs to happen so the important work being done by those supporting people experiencing homelessness can be done effectively, and the voices at the table of the homelessness ministerial advisory council can be heard.

There are other ways councils can deal with this.

In Melbourne, the city council has established a dedicated branch that connects people to housing, healthcare, and case management. Council libraries have social workers.

This isn’t just about legal rights – though those matter, and people can get advice and assistance from Basic Rights Queensland, who are actively assisting clients to exercise their rights of appeal by internal review, preparing judicial review proceedings and notification of human rights obligations.

Homelessness isn’t a crime. It’s a crisis.

When someone has lost everything, should we really take away their last shelter too?

Councils need to choose how to be part of the solution.

Sam Tracy is legal practice director at Basic Rights Queensland