Secret report: Authorities refuse to release details on homeless crisis on the Gold Coast

A huge surge in the number of homeless people on Surfers Paradise streets is being blamed by residents and businesses on a crackdown in Southport. This is what’s happened.

A HOMELESS army has left Southport and moved to Surfers Paradise after a crackdown by authorities in the CBD, according to residents and businesses.

Photographs taken by the Bulletin and videos filmed by residents show confronting images of street violence and people sleeping outside empty shopfronts in the tourism heart.

Businesses have complained to the newspaper but the extent of the crisis remains unknown because the State Government continues to delay the release of critical data to councillors.

A homeless man sleeps on a street in Surfers Paradise. Picture: Tertius Pickard.

The council administration has also refused to release its own research on the homeless.

Councillor Hermann Vorster revealed the government was yet to respond to a request for information on the number of social housing units, the demand for places and how the Coast compared to Brisbane, Logan, Moreton Bay and Sunshine Coast.

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Colleagues strongly backed his recommendation last November that Mayor Tom Tate write to the Premier and Minister requesting data and “what government initiatives are planned to reduce housing stress”.

“We are trying to create policies to help but we are doing it in the absence of information to make perfectly informed opinion,” Cr Vorster said.

“My deep suspicion is that we are not properly resourced on the Gold Coast to meet demand.”

Surfers Paradise resident Christine Tibbitts, who filmed a brawl outside of her Cavill Avenue home this week, said she had seen a disturbing change in the suburb in recent years.

“Locals don’t stay in this area anymore, they avoid it because of incidents like this,” she said.

Trolleys used by the homeless in Surfers Paradise. Picture: Tertius Pickard.

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Ms Tibbitts suspects the youths involved in the fight were not homeless, but the group was renowned for loitering in the precinct.

“A lot of people feel it is the same group of people that had been moved on from Southport that are now here in Surfers,” she said.

“It (moving people) isn’t dealing with the problem, it is just shifting people elsewhere. We just want our city to feel safe.”

Items belonging to homeless people in Surfers Paradise. Picture: Tertius Pickard.

Cr Vorster said he had sought to discover whether a lack of resourcing was across the state or more pronounced on the Coast compared to neighbouring areas.

“I have and city officers have been unable to tease that out from the publicly available information provided from the State,” he said.

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“It feels as though every time an inquiry is made or some information is published the definitions have changed, or time frames have changed. There is no single point of truth.

“We are going to great expense recruiting city officers, providing them with training.”

In July last year, councillors supported the development of a Homelessness Action Plan. It included the trial of two new temporary full-time officers who would help in responding to homelessness.

Councillor Hermann Vorster — backed by councillors on trying to nail down the State Government on helping the homeless. Picture: Jerad Williams.

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The $200,000 trial targeted Labrador, Southport, Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach, Burleigh and Coolangatta.

Southport councillor Brooke Patterson said most of the 30 homeless in the CBD had agreed to government-funded accommodation ensuring Carey Park was cleared of tents.

A homeless man lies on a street in Surfers Paradise. Picture: Tertius Pickard.

“My take on it is a lot of the (street) issues in Surfers and Southport aren’t people who are homeless. They are people going there for a day (from the trams),” she said.

Councillors at a meeting in late July last year backed a resolution that a report on the homeless be made non-confidential after the CEO determined what could be released to the public.

But a request from the Bulletin for the report has been rejected by council with none of the information being made available.

Originally published as Secret report: Authorities refuse to release details on homeless crisis on the Gold Coast