Moreton Bay Regional Council will no longer lease the Redcliffe Drop-In Centre group promised site

A southeast Queensland community raised close to $70,000 for a homeless drop-in centre, five years on no centre exists — the group behind it blames the council and the council says the organisation is at fault.

Moreton Bay Regional Council and The Redcliffe Drop-in Centre are at a stale mate regarding the homeless support service.

A southeast Queensland community raised close to $70,000 for a homeless drop-in centre, five years on no centre exists — the group behind it blames the council and the council says the organisation is at fault.

There is now a call for the money to be handed over to another charity working with the homeless.

Redcliffe residents helped raise about $67,000 for the project through the first three Rockin’ 4 the Homeless events.

The community is yet to see any progress on the project.

The group behind the project, The Redcliffe Drop-In Centre (previously Club 189), announced via social media and an advertisement in the Redcliffe Herald, that it was at a “stalemate” with the Moreton Bay Regional Council.

The council announced in June 2017 it had earmarked a site at Lamington Drive, near the showground to the group for the drop-in centre.

Redcliffe Drop-In Centre previously said it hoped to be up and running by July this year, before announcing it was at least 12 months behind schedule earlier this year.

Call for a decision

Group committee chair Carmel Riethmuller said they were calling on the council to make a decision regarding the location of the drop-in centre by November 30.

She said it was not yet decided what would happen if this deadline was not met.

Ms Riethmuller said council had withdrawn its offer to lease a site at Lamington Drive, Redcliffe, due to objections from the surrounding community groups including Encircle, Men’s Shed and the Lions Club Kippa-Ring.

In the statement on the group’s Facebook page she said “attempts to consult with the existing tenants were made, but they refused to retract their objections.”

The group claims to have met all of council’s requirements, including putting together a business plan.

Moreton Bay Regional Council Mayor Allan Sutherland said this was not the case.

“While homelessness is a State Government responsibility, council has tried helping the Drop-In Centre to offer a solution here in Redcliffe,” Cr Sutherland said.

“However it’s a fallacy for them to claim they’d been gifted council land to operate from.

“Council had earmarked a site and provided in-principle support for a lease, subject to three conditions. After these conditions had been met, Council would then consider their proposal at a Council Meeting.”

Cr Sutherland said the three conditions were:

“First: To ensure that the responsible tier of government was comfortable with the group’s approach, the Drop-In Centre was initially required to provide written confirmation of the State Government’s support. However we agreed to waive this requirement when the State Government refused to endorse their service delivery model,” he said.

“Second: The Drop-In Centre was required to demonstrate they had the finances and capacity to build and operate this service, which they haven’t done.

“Third: They were also required to provide written evidence of a consultation process with other stakeholders at the site, including the Men’s Shed, Encircle and Lions Club — all of whom have raised concerns with the proposal.

“This didn’t occur until July this year.

“So the two year ‘delay’ that the Drop-In Centre is trying to blame council for, is actually a consequence of their own administrative delays.”

Councillor Koliana Winchester (Div 6) said she had been working collaboratively with local service providers to try to achieve a positive outcome and would continue to do so.

“Council is continuing to investigate what other options may be available for the Drop-In Centre,” she said.

“I understand the time frames that they are trying to work to and have organised for this matter to be discussed at a Council workshop as a matter of priority on November 27 — delivering on their November 30 requirement.”

Redcliffe Drop-In Centre chair Carmel Riethmuller Picture Chris Higgins

The centre

Ms Riethmuller said if established the group hoped to fill in a gap in the Peninsula’s welfare services.

“We’re looking at how we can help each individual identify what they need personally to move on or to avoid becoming homeless — is it a job, new skills, or help with depression, or a safe place to sleep or a mobile phone, or some way of travelling to another place where they’d rather be, solutions are many, options at this stage are very limited,” she said.

“We’ll be working with existing service providers to deliver the combination of services each person needs and then ensuring we monitor them, provide checkpoints and someone to help them work through all the steps.”

The money

Rockin 4 the Homeless founder and executive producer Dan Nebe is calling on the $67,000 raised to be returned to The Breakfast Club, another organisation in Redcliffe working with homeless people.

“These funds have been in an account for five years, on pause, waiting for a space to operate from,” Mr Nebe said.

“The direction of the Redcliffe Drop-In Centre is so far off the intended cause I find it offensive.

“We parted ways with this group because of inaction and floundering. The money is intended for the homeless. Not wages.”

Mr Nebe said The Breakfast Club of Redcliffe now had a hub, which was fully funded by Rockin 4 the Homeless.

“We have raised over $100,000 in the past two years,” he said.

“The community made this happen. The $67,000 will go towards the expansion and growing needs of the homeless community. They are the silent voice I will sing very loudly for.”