Cost of living crisis: Gold Coast families forced into homelessness despite working jobs

A frustrated Labrador resident has issued a challenge to all politicians amid rising numbers of Gold Coast families forced into homelessness. Watch what she had to say

A frustrated Gold Coaster has dared all politicians to “live a life in our shoes” as more families are forced into homelessness despite working full time.

It comes after the Queensland government delivered a $14 billion budget surplus last year despite the Gold Coast recording some of the most disadvantaged communities in the nation.

Longtime Labrador resident and advocate Sharon Woodman said governments need to do more to support crisis support organisations and blamed politicians for being out of touch.

“(Politicians) just don’t get it. Maybe they need to live in our shoes and see how they survive,” Ms Woodman said.

Labrador resident Sharon Woodman, 45, said Gold Coasters are frustrated with poor cost of living support as more families face homelessness. Picture: Amaani Siddeek

“I challenge any politician to live on $900 a week, pay $600 a week in rent and buy food and survive.”

Queensland Council of Social Service (QCOSS) CEO Aimee McVeigh said at least 10 per cent of young people on the Gold Coast are living in poverty while the cost of a single grocery run had increased by $70 on average in the past year.

“I’m hearing the most troubling stories about single mothers living in cars with newborns,” Ms McVeigh said.

“Dads going to work and fronting up to organisations needing food relief for their family, our own workforce living in caravans and tents.”

“Families are making impossible choices between keeping a roof over their head, feeding their kids or taking their kids to the doctor. These are choices no family should have to make.”

Perched on a glorified median strip beside the Gold Coast Highway is a homeless camp. Monday May 22, 2023. Picture: John Gass

Ms Woodman, who works closely with residents newly navigating homelessness, said more people with jobs were finding themselves on the streets.

“People are really struggling and it’s not just low-income earners, it’s medium income earners too.”

Act For Kids CEO Katrina Lines said the children’s charity had been forced to buy tents for desperate families on the Gold Coast who had nowhere else to go.

“We have been buying tents for people. It’s preferable to have a tent of good quality rather than sleeping rough, particularly if you’ve got kids,” Ms Lines said.

QCOSS CEO Aimee McVeigh, Labrador resident Sharon Woodman and Act for Kids CEO Dr Katrina Lines. PIcture: Amaani Siddeek

“If it’s all we can afford and it’s all they can afford then it’s better than nothing.

“The caravan parks are all full on the Gold Coast. And they’re not only full, they’re extremely expensive.”

The Bulletin last year revealed how teachers and charity workers reported seeing record numbers of children turning up to school hungry.

Ms Lines said the scale of the crisis was unlike anything previously seen on the Gold Coast.

“We’ve never seen numbers like this. This is unprecedented. And it’s families who have never needed help, who have never needed food or housing,” Ms Lines said.

“This is different. This is not like anything we have done in our 35 years.”

A tent belonging to homeless person , dwarfed by the new high rise being built behind it at Labrador, highlights the gap between the haves and the have nots on the Gold Coast. Picture Glenn Hampson

Ms Lines, whose organisation has 70 people working on the Gold Coast, said the crisis was made worse by escalating rates of domestic violence, with some women forced to sleep in cars and tents with their children for the lack of anywhere else to go.

She said the impact on children could be profound and long term.

“When you have traumatic experiences as a child and they persist as a young person then the impact on a child is quite profound,” Ms Lines said.

“Kids can feel completely disenfranchised from a community that doesn’t really care about them and then it’s not surprising if they’re disengaging from school and doing things that they really shouldn’t be doing.”

QCOSS and Act for Kids have launched a campaign, called Make Queensland Fair, calling for both major political parties to do more to address the number of families sleeping rough on the Gold Coast before the October state election.