Homelessness: More than 100 homeless people camping in Southport

Children as young as 12 are part of a 100-person group of homeless people which has settled on school grounds or top tourist spots.

CHILDREN as young as 12 are part of a 100-person homeless army that are settling on school grounds or top tourist spots like Broadwater Parklands in Southport.

Shocking photographs of camp sites and teenage chroming hot spots have sparked calls for a homeless summit or forum so charities, retailers and residents can get a long-term solution and help move the families off the streets and from parks.

HOMELESS MAN DENIED ACCESS TO TOILET

A camp site for the homeless at Southport on the Gold Coast around a local school.

A Bulletin investigation can reveal:

* The permanent homeless army is between 80 and 100 with their sites within walking distance of charities offering free meals at least six days a week.

* 12 and 13-year-olds are sleeping on a mattress around the trees in the Broadwater Parklands where they use aerosol cans each night for chroming.

* About 20 cans have been dumped at one site, and chemists in Southport have given up on calling police after kids steal the items for drug use.

* Within the boundaries of at least two schools in the Southport area, homeless families have set up permanent camp sites and only moved on after complaints by residents to police.

THOUSANDS WAIT FOR GOLD COAST SOCIAL HOUSING

Homeless teenagers dump aerosol cans by a tree in the Broadwater Parklands at Southport, on the Gold Coast.

* Residents near the schools are furious after faeces and bongs are regularly dumped in their wheelie bins.

* At a car park in the CBD arrangements have been made to buy a television from Harvey Norman to give the homeless families some comfort at night.

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A charity worker who starts preparing free food in the early hours of the morning said the homeless camps around Labrador and Southport were all within walking distance of key locations for free lunches and breakfasts provided by community and Christian groups.

“They want to be within walking distance of where they can be fed,” he said. “These people can get a feed six days a week, and it’s quite good food. They can have a roast dinner. It’s an entitlement factor.

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A mattress in the Broadwater Parklands on the Gold Coast where homeless teenagers are sleeping.

“Some of them are using the system. They are demanding to be looked after. I was helping at 4am and one of them said ‘where’s my f … ing breakfast — what time are you serving me’.

“They have learned that at Southport, it is better than what you will get at somewhere like Bundaberg and Rockhampton.”

Bonney MP Sam O’Connor has called for a forum to be staged for stakeholders.

“There’s been a big increase in people doing it tough, living out of cars, couch surfing or living rough in our area. Most nights of the week local feeds easily have 70 to 100 people turning up,” Mr O’Connor said.

HOMELESS CHARITY HOSTS FUNDRAISING WALK

The Southport base for a homeless family on the Gold Coast.

“There’s people living in the corridor of the Coomera Connector, under bridges, in the bush right near Harbour Town next to local sporting clubs.

“The police just moved on a camp from the bushland at the back of a local school. They could only do that because it was on school land.

“We’ve now got a new, very large set up next to a creek at the back of another school.”

Mr O’Connor has spoken to police but knows the frustration of local officers as “the only 24/7 agency in this space” with little powers unless homeless commit a criminal offence.

“They’re left to deal with a lot of this. They shouldn’t have to, in most cases homeless people are not causing the sort of trouble that would need police attention. They’re doing the best they can but we need other programs in place to provide support at all hours,” he said.

GOLD COAST HOMELESS TELL THEIR STORY

A homeless woman outside a business in Southport.

Mr O’Connor believes delays in projects like the youth foyer in Southport in which 40 new units could provide accommodation for homeless teenagers was not helping ease the crisis.

“We need better resources for support agencies to give these people every possible chance to get back on their feet,” he said.

Residents have written numerous emails complaining to both Mr O’Connor and area councillor Dawn Crichlow after a homeless couple had been moved on from a school site to “the back of a creek”.

“They are dumping their faeces in rubbish bags in residents’ wheeling bins, they are dumping their homemade bongs,” the resident wrote.

“They are right behind the school where students like to take a bush walk. I do not feel safe to take my baby and dog for a walk along there now.

MAJOR COAST HOMELESS PROJECT DELAYED

A homeless man is helped by police and paramedics.

“Are we simply ‘enabling’ them to goods? It’s not like I don’t want to help those less fortunate. These people need not just to be moved on but also need to be shown a better life. A drug-free life. A respectable life.”

Veteran Southport city councillor Dawn Crichlow, who is trying to find solutions to the homeless crisis, urged residents to stall on making fast judgments.

She said Rosies, after contacting Harvey Norman, had been able to get a television for a large number of homeless using a car park for shelter at night.

“At least they will know what is going on in the world. There is good and bad in everybody. They’re not hurting anybody,” she said.

A homeless woman in Southport.

“You have to understand that this can happen to you tomorrow. Once you’re thrown out for not paying rent you are suddenly sleeping in your car. I don’t mind if they are sleeping in the car park.”

In June, the Bulletin first reported on a spike in the winter homeless with many of the 60 people lining up for food at a Labrador park arriving from Southport.

Another report last month detailed how workers in Southport were being given duress alarms to get to their cars because of the drugs, alcohol and fighting among the homeless in the CBD.

Business owners complained the crisis was affecting their trade because residents were too scared to visit Southport.

Cr Crichlow called for more accommodation, aware of a shocking case in which a woman was prostituting herself for $10 and taking men to the toilets at the library.