Dolly Jensen, QCOSS CEO Aimee McVeigh speak on Gympie housing crisis

Qld’s peak social service group says the housing crisis in Gympie is now ‘critical’ and needs immediate and increased attention, as more people facing homelessness for the first time in their lives, and long-term residents are being evicted or forced out by rising rents.

The staggering scale of Gympie’s homelessness crisis continues to be revealed with one social service being approached by more than 70 people every month seeking help, and long-term residents being forced to leave the region.

These troubling trends were revealed by the Queensland Council of Social Service ahead of a a town-hall meeting in the city on Friday, August 12.

In a media statement, QCOSS said many Gympie people were facing homelessness for the first time in their lives.

The Gympie Times has campaigned on the issue for months, urging authorities to stop passing the buck, and to unite and find a solution.

Ongoing housing shortages, domestic violence, mental health issues, and substance abuse, all compounded by the disastrous January and February floods, continue to be issues community services across the region are dealing with.

Community Action Inc operations manager Andrea Matthews said some people had been flooded five times this year.

“The housing situation in Gympie is critical,” Mrs Matthews said.

“We are seeing people living in tents, people overcrowding tenancies, women and children remaining in homes where they are not safe, substandard and makeshift housing, squatting, sleeping rough and couch surfing.

“We need more affordable housing options, the extension of National Affordability Rental Scheme, and increased funding for existing services.”

QCOSS CEO Aimee McVeigh said Gympie’s housing crisis was now at an unacceptable level.

“Services are telling us that a rising number of long-term residents are being forced to leave the area due to eviction notices and soaring rents,” Ms McVeigh said.

“The housing crisis, which has been exacerbated by the floods, needs immediate and increased attention.

The town hall meeting arrives as outspoken Gympie councillor Dolly Jensen has revealed a plan to ease the region’s ongoing rental crisis.

The pressure of the region’s ever-tightening rental squeeze shows no sign of going away.

Gympie councillor Dolly Jensen has revealed her plan to incorporate the State and Federal Governments into solving the rental crisis for the Gympie region.

The crisis was only exacerbated by the February flood when 800 homes and businesses were inundated and left uninhabitable, and needing repairs or replacing.

The rental crisis has been a serious point of discussion for months, with communities across the state begging politicians for a solution.

Ms Jensen said she intended to begin talks with the State and Federal Governments, who she hoped would work with Gympie Regional Council to address the problem.

“Housing is a State (Government) issue, not a local government issue … but they’re our people, so they’re still our issue,” she said.

“There’s a lot of good ideas we’ve got to look at.”

Ms Jensen said she could not comment on specifics until she had spoken with Housing Minister Leeanne Enoch, but said she was inspired by the idea of using shipping containers to build new, cheap homes.

The old Gympie caravan park is being transformed into housing for residents displaced by the February 2022 Gympie floods. Mayor Glen Hartwig and Minister Leeanne Enoch are pictured at the site with staff.

It comes as a plan to turn a disused caravan park in Jane St into accommodation for those displaced by the floods and to ease the housing crisis, were announced in April.

But Ms Jensen said this wasn’t enough.

“It’s still not helping everybody,” she said.

“There’s two types of homeless at the moment: we’ve got the homeless … sleeping under bridges … and we’ve got working couples with children sleeping in cars because their houses, their rentals, have been sold out from under them and they’ve still got work and school.”

Jackson Cochrane was living in a tent on Gympie’s Southside after being unable to find a rental property in the region. Photo: Jorina Maureschat

She said she felt “positively helpless” about the situation, which she described as heartbreaking.

“I am so sad, and I think if I was a (multi) millionaire I think I would blow all the money on houses for people,” she said.

“People can’t even come here to work because there’s no homes.”

Ms Jensen said the community was begging for more to be done about the crisis, but residents were not in a position to argue with plans already in place.

“Anything we’re being offered, we will take,” she said.