Qld housing crisis: Uni, church emergency accommodation

Providers have come forward to offer emergency accommodation at a housing crisis roundtable held by the government.

Vacant student accommodation at Griffith University in Brisbane’s south with 200 beds will be used as emergency accommodation to help ease the state’s housing crisis.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk made the announcement following a housing roundtable meeting, as she issued a call for more organisations to come forward if they had vacant accommodation.

Deputy Premier, Infrastructure and Planning Minister Steven Miles said: “This will increase crisis accommodation available for people in need and help solve one of the multiple housing issues.”

Delegates at the housing crisis roundtable on Friday. Picture: John Gass/NCA NewsWire

Mr Miles said there was consensus at the meeting to urgently use buildings that were being under-utilised.

He said the Catholic Church had also identified about 90 vacant sites that could be used for accommodation.

“I’ve said from the start – we don’t fix these issues by working alone,” Mr Miles said.

“We must have co-ordinated approaches for investment, for infrastructure to support growth and for making better use of existing land.”

Ms Palaszczuk said the government was actively exploring forcing new high-density construction to provide 10 to 25 per cent of the stock built to be given to social and affordable housing.

The model of dedicating a portion of construction to public housing was similar to policy used in the United Kingdom.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner has repeatedly pitched for the Pinkenba quarantine facility to be repurposed as crisis accommodation, particularly for victims of domestic violence.

But Ms Palaszczuk said homelessness service providers told the roundtable on Friday that they had visited the site and said it was unsuitable to be used as emergency accommodation.

The roundtable follows the government on Thursday taking control of Redland City Council’s housing strategy due to its alleged inability to cater to Queensland’s surging population.

Mayor Karen Williams on Friday again defended her council’s capacity to meet the state’s housing targets, saying Redlands had been “singled out” by Mr Miles.

Cr Williams argued her council had not only met, but exceeded its set housing targets by “almost four times” and questioned why her “small” council had been “singled out.”

“In 2017, the state’s regional plan Shaping SEQ identified Redland City as needing to provide 17,200 additional dwellings by 2041,” she said.

“In December last year, the state’s Land Supply and Development Monitoring Report indicated that Redland, with 6000 dwellings already completed since 2016, would now need capacity for 11,200 new dwellings by 2041.

“Again, their own figures released that same month showed Redland City has capacity for more than 43,000 new dwellings – almost four times what is required.

“I don’t understand why our small council is being singled out, when this city is accommodating about 1000 new dwellings of all types each year.”

Cr Williams said she has since asked Mr Miles to reconsider a proposal about critical state infrastructure put to him on Wednesday.

“The proposal aims to link infrastructure and growth and offers the Redlands as a pilot that links state government housing targets with the roads, hospitals and public transport needed by the people who will live in those homes,” she said.

“This morning I have again asked the Deputy Premier to consider this proposal and he has given a commitment to speak with his department about it.”