Tent cities emerge alongside D’Aguilar Highway in Caboolture

Peter works at Coles but still has to live on the streets with his siblings and mother, as tent cities are popping up all over one of Queensland’s fastest growing communities, forcing families to sleep rough beside a major highway.

Tent cities are popping up all over one of Queensland’s fastest growing communities with families sleeping rough beside one of the state’s major highways.

Across Caboolture, tents have been set up directly underneath the D’Aguilar Highway as well as opposite from the City of Moreton Bay Caboolture Works Depot.

As people drive along the Caboolture River tents can also be seen spread out sporadically at Centenary Park.

Peter Johnson who works at Coles, is one of many across the city, who has a job but still live on the streets with his two siblings and his mother.

Tent cities around in and around Caboolture. Pictured, Peter Johnson. Photo: Patrick Woods.

The growing problem has prompted the state government to create a dedicated response team for the Moreton Bay Region.

Mr Johnson who currently lives across from the Caboolture Works Depot said it was tricky working while sleeping rough but the high rental costs forced him there.

“It’s a little bit depressing having to come here and not have a proper house or shelter but at the same time I know if I don’t go to work I am going to be even worse off so I just have to soldier on every day,” Mr Johnson said.

“It can be tricky, we are on swags – very thin mattresses – we quite easily feel the ground. It’s rough but we do get some sleep thankfully, it’s crazy.

Tent cities around in and around Caboolture. Picture: Patrick Woods.

“I work at Coles and they’ve been very helpful on occasion.

“They’ve given us food, they’ve given us a gazebo and a fridge. But even then we still struggle, we have a generator and half the time we don't have money for fuel or food, it’s not easy.”

Mr Johnson said both him and his mother work but it still wasn’t enough to get a rental around Caboolture.

Steven Bieley lives across from the D’Aguilar Highway in a tent with his 18-year-old daughter and her partner.

Tent cities around in and around Caboolture. Pictured, Steven Bieley. Photo: Patrick Woods.

Mr Bieley said he became homeless in 2019 when he lost his job as an asbestos sprayer after an accident.

But since he has been living on the streets he said it had gotten worse.

“There are heaps more tents, it’s just shocking, it’s not right,” he said.

“There wasn’t many at the time but now there’s heaps. You go walking in bushes sometimes and you just see them everywhere, poor buggers.”

Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon said the team and government-funded homeless organisations regularly visit Caboolture.

“And we’ll be creating a dedicated response team for the Moreton Bay region,” she said.

It comes as Premier Steven Miles declared Queenslanders seeking a roof over their heads will receive immediate support into crisis accommodation.

“Sometimes these things are lumpy but the goal of those services and the reason we’ve increased that funding is so that crisis accommodation can be offered to everybody,” he said. The state government said anyone not offered accommodation could escalate the matter, while Mr Miles said there were other reasons people could be sleeping rough.

Tent cities around in and around Caboolture. Picture: Patrick Woods.

A City of Council spokeswoman said homelessness in the Moreton Bay region had increased over the last decade.

“This includes rising numbers of people with no option but to sleep rough in public spaces,” she said.

The social housing system has not kept pace with the pressure that’s being put on it, and that pressure has increased locally.”

She said the state government needed to address the current shortfall of crisis and transitional accommodation.

The Foyer Foundation has called on the federal government to fund 10 new accommodation sites across Australia including Caboolture.

The proposed foyer in Caboolture would have Wesley Mission Queensland and Caboolture TAFE partnering up to deliver it.

Foyer Foundation chief executive Liz Cameron-Smith said the new youth foyers would help set youth up with a career and get them on track after homelessness.

Tent cities around in and around Caboolture. Pictured, Steven Bieley. Photo: Patrick Woods.

“Obviously, there’s incredibly high need in Caboolture. And it’s an area where there are a lot of young people experiencing homelessness,” she said.

“It’s just the perfect kind of conditions for something like a youth foyer to really create incredible outcomes for young people that are not just about housing, but they’re also about integrating education and pathways to work and employment, so that young people can transition from a situation of homelessness to a place of independence.”

Minister for Housing and Minister for Homelessness, Julie Collins said they had provided more than $1 billion in funding to Queensland Government towards housing and homelessness.

“The Albanese Labor Government is also providing the biggest boost to Commonwealth Rent Assistance in more than 30 years,” she said.

“We will continue to work hard to ensure our ambitious housing reform agenda is working across the board with more help for renters, more help for homebuyers and more help for Queenslanders needing a safe place for the night.”

Originally published as Tent cities emerge alongside D’Aguilar Highway in Caboolture