Qld housing crisis: Tent city springs up in Brisbane’s CBD

Tents teeter on the edge of the river, clothes hang on fences and there are even posters and paintings hung in Brisbane’s CBD tent city, with regular commuters along one popular route saying the situation is out of control.

• Your view: US-like ‘embarrassment’
• Bold pledge: Miles guarantees roof over every head

Tents teeter on the edge of the river, makeshift gardens spring up along the bank, clothes hang on fences and even paintings have been hung.

Brisbane’s homeless are making themselves at home in the middle of the city, ensuring the crisis gripping Queensland will not go unnoticed in the state’s capital.

As joggers and cyclists traverse the nearby Bicentennial Bikeway, some of the homeless have climbed the rocks to set themselves up away from prying eyes.

Micah Projects chief executive Karyn Walsh said while people don’t tend to stay there for long periods of time, due to how uncomfortable the living situation is, there are tents that tend to pop up from Victoria Bridge on the city side all the way through to Toowong.

“There’s definitely tents over there, it’s just an extension of the problem of how many people are rough sleeping,” she said.

Homeless tent and rough living is occurring along the Bicentennial Bikeway from Victoria Bridge though to William Jolly Bridge. Picture: David Clark

“The housing supply isn’t keeping up with the need for housing.

“So even though everyone’s working very hard to get people in as soon as vacancies occur. Obviously there’s still more people rough sleeping than there are houses.”

Ms Walsh said sometimes people try going to places like the Brisbane River because they want to get away from where there are groups of people – with some people climbing up rocks to keep their distance.

“There’s been different people at different times, obviously you need to be pretty agile – it’s not for everybody and it is a bit dangerous,” she said.

Q Shelter executive director Fiona Caniglia said it was understandable that people congregated where they can be sheltered, like near bridges in the City.

“But the number of people congregating in these kinds of arrangements at the moment is absolutely a function of the lack of housing in the system,” she said.

“The reason why there’s a lot more visible people camping at various sites around a place like Brisbane City is because rental affordability is at an all-time low.

“And overall, we don’t have enough homes to meet demand. And when that happens when rental vacancy rates are, as low as 1 per cent or even lower, then there simply isn’t enough homes in the market for everybody who needs one.

■ ‘Wake up to yourselves’: What you said about tent city

Some of the areas are decorated with posters just like home. Picture: David Clark

“And secondly, people on lower incomes . just can’t compete with other people who have higher incomes, and have got a strong rental history.”

Brisbane resident Richard said he had been doing the commute along Brisbane River for six years and had never seen the situation as “out of control”.

He said it had become a “god awful mess” down there and more needed to be done to help the people there.

Ms Caniglia said more members of the public were starting to notice homeless people around areas they hadn’t been before.

“I think it is really coming to the attention of members of the public, that’s for sure,” she said.

“And it is a really uncomfortable site. And people may be concerned about safety, the safety of the people themselves and the safety of the broader community.

“And it’s why it’s so important to get to a point where we have community support or investment in housing and homelessness solutions.
Ms Caniglia said the problem at the moment was it took time to build homes and the construction industry was struggling.

“It’s really important to get the long term planning right or else we find ourselves in these situations,” she said.

A makeshift home next to the Bicentennial Bikeway and beneath the Riverside Expressway. Picture: David Clark

Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon said a department team had been on the ground across the inner city working with groups like Micah to help rough sleepers and offer them a place to stay.

“I understand the team will be heading out to this location tomorrow to offer anyone support and to help them with their belongings,” she said.

“The team to-date has already helped more than 460 people in inner-Brisbane with emergency accommodation and housing.”

It comes after Premier Steven Miles visited a tent city in Rothwell in his own electorate north of Brisbane, which housed up to 30 working Queenslanders and young families.

Originally published as Qld housing crisis: Tent city springs up in Brisbane’s CBD