How the Gold Coast’s homeless problem is being swept under the rug

WHILE the ASF casino slapdown gained the headlines this week, the State Government thought it could sweep one of the Gold Coast’s most important issues under the rug. Here’s why we need to take notice.

THE casino slapdown gained the headlines, but it’s the plight of the homeless across the Gold Coast that tugged at my heart more than anything spoken about during the Queensland Government’s stint here this week.

Without a doubt, the rejection of the proposed $3 billion casino on the Southport Spit has been the biggest announcement made during the Palaszczuk team’s visit to the Glitter Strip.

And it allowed the Government’s moves to hide our homeless during next year’s Commonwealth Games to slip by relatively unnoticed.

The Gold Coast’s homeless will be shafted off to other areas of Queensland during the Commonwealth Games.

During a news conference on Wednesday, under the guise of a funding grant being gifted to the Gold Coast Suns for a youth development program, Minister for Housing and Public Works Mick de Brenni revealed hundreds of homeless people would be given emergency accommodation during the Commonwealth Games.

Housing Minister Mick de Brenni talks to Gold Coast Suns players Peter Wright and Touk Miller at the announcement of funding for the club's homeless program. Photo: Kathleen Skene

Nothing wrong with that, though it’d be nice if it happened in winter, not during our balmy autumns.

What it is though, is a bid to clean up the streets so we look good on the international stage.

We can’t directly compare it to the Rio Government’s moves to tidy up the favela slums of Brazil ahead of the Olympics there, but think about the publicity those moves got on the world stage.

The State Government has canned the ASF consortium project.

Here, on any given night, there are 1,400 people sleeping on the streets of the Glitter Strip — an image the Government certainly doesn't want shown widely.

The $1 million dollar GC2018 Homelessness Action Plan will see 420 emergency beds made available.

But there is a catch — anyone taking up the offer will be moved from the Gold Coast to areas including Ipswich, Logan and Brisbane.

And what happens after the Games?

Minister de Brenni couldn’t give a straight answer, but it’s more than likely they will be back on the street where they started.

In the words of Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, the best solution for a person who is homeless is to get a roof over their head.

Shouldn’t that be the situation for a lot more than the two weeks of the Games?

— Johanna Marie is the Sky News Gold Coast reporter